National newspapers to replace big local publications?

One of the advantages of the Internet is that we can now read foreign press in real time, often finding news about ourselves as well as garnering that all-important outsider view of our culture. Today's Guardian from Great Britain offers a story that might be far more important than it seems.

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, according to the Guardian, plan local editions in the San Francisco area since it's entirely possible that city's big local papers will die out. The strategy is aimed at the hardest-hit segment of the newspaper market, the big local paper (like the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). National newspapers and community newspapers are suffering a bit, along with the rest of the economy, but the big local papers are really hurting.

This strategy -- and, if it's successful, look for USA Today to relaunch its '90s effort to create local papers to accompany the national one -- is yet another sign that some in the newspaper world aren't giving up on those of us who like print.