Locally Sourced Content: Two Days, Two Perspectives

I regularly read about television content consumers' preferred viewing environments (potentially) migrating from displays in living rooms to computer monitors (streamed directly off networks' websites, as well as coming from delivery partners such as Joost and YouTube), and to iPods, cell phones and other portable devices. I also note the booming popularity of nationwide satellite radio providers Sirius and XM, and of Internet streaming radio services. And I wonder, in both cases, what this trend means for local radio and television affiliates; what role (if any) will they play in the future as centralized content sources increasingly assert themselves?

I've got two divergent perspectives to share, ironically from the business sections of two consecutive days' worth of the Sacramento Bee newspaper. First, check out an article which originally came from the Los Angeles Times. A year ago, I informed you that the person taking your order in the fast food drive-through kiosk might be on the other side of the world, versus within the building your car's currently idling next to. Now we find out that folks on the other side of the world are also monitoring local government meetings via webcam and subsequently filing their writeups on these meetings over email. Where's the sense of community engagement in this particular picture? In the rush to save Almighty Dollars and Cents, is locally sourced news the next thing to get outsourced?

Contrast that disturbing trend with an article sourced by the Associated Press which appeared in today's Bee and which USA Today also picked up. Comcast and other cable operators are expanding their local events coverage as a means of differentiating themselves from satellite television providers, and ahead of the looming television content threat from national telecoms such as AT&T and Verizon (along with regional telecom providers like SureWest). I was struck as I read the piece by the observation that whereas in the past, the cable folks basically acted as conduits for other companies' content, now they're asserting themselves (likely in response to the centralization threat mentioned in the first paragraph) and becoming original content creators in their own right.

I feel compelled to point out, however, that the AP writeup specifically doesn't mention how much Comcast and its competitors are funding their local news teams. Without this information, it's difficult to assess just how much the cable service providers value locally sourced material. I often hear about how, due to staff cutbacks, and in response to the increasing cost-effectiveness of high-quality video cameras and computer gear, television reporters are single-handedly not only researching stories and conducting interviews but also filming and subsequently editing those stories for broadcast. That can't be an encouraging trend for the future of deep, meaningful journalism, huh? And is under-paying (or, if you prefer, over-working) a domestic news team tangibly different, at end of day, than outsourcing that same news team?

How do you think the news media will evolve in the face of transformation in its delivery methods?