Three pieces — one from the New York Times, one from the New Republic and one from Salon.com — make a similar argument: fewer newspapers means fewer reporters, fewer reporters means less vital news sees the light of day. From Gary Kamiya at Salon:

What is really threatened by the decline of newspapers and the related rise of online media is reporting — on-the-ground reporting by trained journalists who know the subject, have developed sources on all sides, strive for objectivity and are working with editors who check their facts, steer them in the right direction and are a further check against unwarranted assumptions, sloppy thinking and reporting, and conscious or unconscious bias.

Read the Times oped here, New Republic here and the full Salon piece here.