Keeping eyes on local prize

I don't have much to add to Jeff Jarvis' reactions to Tribune Co. foreign bureau closings, except that I agree, in particular with this paragraph:

"The news industry is wasting a tremendous share of its ever-sparser resources on bylines: They have their own movie critics, though there’s nothing local about movies; they send their golf writers to the latest televised tournaments, though it is covered better and quicker on TV; they send their own team to the political conventions along with 15,000 more, in full knowledge that nothing would happen there and that they likely would not report anything that wasn't reported elsewhere. Now I’m not saying that these aren't talented people doing fine work. The [Baltimore] Sun’s man in Johannesburg turned out good features and stories, a few a month -- all that could fit. But that doesn't matter. The point is that they're doing what lots of other people already do."