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Jacob Margolies's avatar

I miss New York Newsday (the tabloid in a tutu), which from 1985 to 1995 had terrific city reporting and a collection of good local columnists who wrote with a sense of style.

The New York Times decision to neglect the city is shortsighted, not to mention a terrible dereliction of civic responsibility. There are a large number of local Times subscribers who pay a lot of money and want to know what’s going on in the city. Why the decision to eviscerate local coverage? Ginia Bellafante is first rate. She’s got a sense of humor, an acute awareness of class, and also does actual on the ground reporting. At her best, she’s the closest thing we have in the city to a successor to Breslin (and she’s less of a blowhard than J.B. Number 1).

The local columns of Michael Powell, Jim Dwyer, Clyde Haberman are missed. The Times could find worthy successors if it chose to do so—although they’d have to reach beyond the cloistered Ivy League confines of writers and reporters they employ. It’s a real shame the Times has chosen to abandon the city it is named after. The demise of local reporting is a national tragedy.

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Ed Moltzen's avatar

Thank you for this. I miss the writing, and was delighted when I found out that for a paid subscription to the NY Daily News online I could access its archives with all of Breslin's work just sitting there waiting to be read and re-read. I truly wish we had a Breslin now (imagine him covering the Trump trials.)

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