Journalism's Little Dragons

Like comedian Rodney Dangerfield, most weekly newspapers "don't get no respect," at least not in the newsrooms of big-city dailies. But that may be changing, writes Sheppard, a former reporter who teaches journalism at Auburn University, in Alabama. While many daily papers are grimly struggling to keep readers, weeklies devoted strictly to local news have seen circulations soar.

In 1985, according to the National Newspaper Association, which promotes community newspapers, there were 7,704 "weeklies" (publishing one to three times a week), with a collective circulation of 49 million; a decade later, 8,453 weeklies reported 79 million readers, with the greatest growth taking place in the suburbs of major cities.

The weeklies' lifeblood, Sheppard writes, is the local news that most dailies, as well as television, ignore. Many weeklies publish every reported crime, arrest, or other activity recorded in the local police blotter.

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