Does Gannett care about locals or do they care about their bottom line profits? They do have interest in collecting political money for advertising but local races do not raise big bucks. When in doubt, follow the money-Ockham.

Deep Throat, actually. And how many ads did Bush or Kerry buy in, say, Indiana or Texas?

I imagine they purchased none but, they were not running for local offices either. The level of government that "should" have the most impact on your daily doings is the one who hires the trashman, the school teacher, the policeman, the fireman, the street cleaner, the library clerk, etc. etc.

Uh...okay. So then how does the profit motive explain what's going on? Either the big money explains the big coverage, or else not. And local politicans in some races do spend an awful lot of money--I wonder if the mayoral candidates in Indianapolis next time will spend as much as Bayh and the other guy.

I think there is an economic reason behind the shift, but I think it's a lot more complicated than "local politicians don't buy enough advertising."

Perhaps the economic reason is that it's a lot cheaper to pay for a small share of a network's national coverage, as opposed to spending the money to cover local races.