Saying So Long to Some Friends

I've lost some friends over the past year or so; not close friends but good ones all the same.
They're newspapers from various cities across the nation and the reasons they're folding (some after more than 100 years of service to their respective communities) seem always to be the same: lack of readers and money. The Internet is blamed for the former, the lack of advertising for the latter.
I should tell you I happen to like newspapers. Someone told me once, when I was a young reporter, that if I wanted to know a community, really know a community, I should go to the local drugstore or diner as soon as I get into town and pick up a local paper. I have done that and have always been rewarded with a fairly complete explanation of what's going on in town, the comings and goings, births and deaths, the business of council and business in general; the small stuff that is really the seasoning to the main menu of downtown. The local newspaper never fails to make a good read and it matters not whether it's the New York Post or the Rocket-Courier in Wyalusing.
Now some of them have gone out of business though a few will make a comeback of sorts as Web sites. It won't be the same.
There won't be the manpower to produce nor the room for stories about the little things in a town, the stuff that really makes a place tick, makes it different from the next town in a long line of towns along nearly every highway.
True, the Internet is faster, a few minutes stopping at a few places and you have the news you need for the day. Well, almost all the news. The local obituary page, the social section, what's going on this weekend, who is visiting, who was born, the menu at school and any number of other little tidbits will not be visible and so will not be seen by the Surfer. In such cases we will be less-informed and that is never good for us.