Are Newspapers Going Back to Their Roots?

Time Magazine explores the new phenomenon of newspapers publishing sensational articles to grow circulation.

The papers are now publishing mugshots of everyone arrested locally and posting them to their Web sites. Even the Chicago Tribune has caught on to this tactic. I remember always reading the local "police blotter" to my dad (he was blind, so I read a lot to him). It was amusing, until someone you knew showed up in the column. Then I felt like a voyeur.

But isn't the strategy that helps most media grow? Think of AM radio, TV news and even, the Internet.

My biggest concern with the decline of the newspaper industry is no one will be able to afford to cover in-depth local stories. TV stations are about the "here and now." Our local paper has been covering an enormous case of state-funded child care fraud. Without a local paper, my fear is these items won't get coverage.

So, if they have to expose a few local arrests to maintain their revenue stream, so be it. If we didn't want to know, it wouldn't sell.