Demand disappeared for good local reporting, long before any LLM. Even NYT & WSJ struggle with their subscriptions, and they have a huge addressable market.
The "slop" is just a reflection of this bottom feeding attempt to get some tiny bit of ad revenue. Using an LLM or a "pay per article" contracting fleet looks very similar.
Most local publications don't pay many if any full time journalists either way. I struggle to find great journalism on any local level around me - and discovery is difficult when anything reasonably good is usually a substack behind a paywall. But even then, they aren't pushing on local issues in person. None are going to the Mayor's press conference and directly asking them questions.
The "slop" is just a reflection of this bottom feeding attempt to get some tiny bit of ad revenue. Using an LLM or a "pay per article" contracting fleet looks very similar.
Most local publications don't pay many if any full time journalists either way. I struggle to find great journalism on any local level around me - and discovery is difficult when anything reasonably good is usually a substack behind a paywall. But even then, they aren't pushing on local issues in person. None are going to the Mayor's press conference and directly asking them questions.