Whatever happened to local coverage?

After spending an hour cruising the sites of various Midwestern newspaper sites, I was starting to think that the only thing happening anywhere was American Idol and Keith Richards snorting his father's ashes--or not snorting them. It's all that was plastered across the arts pages of newspapers large and small and all the articles said basically the same thing.

Now, I realize that Easter weekend is a slow one in the performing arts, but it isn't dead.

So it was with a great deal of relief that I came upon the entertainment page of a newspaper from a small beach town, Grand Haven, Michigan. Yes, they still led with the story of Michigan's American Idol entry and the Keith Richards wire story was included toward the bottom, but for the most part, the page was packed with arts events happening in and around Grand Haven. Sure, the articles are relatively pedestrian and some read like press releases, but at least the coverage is there. That puts them a step ahead of some of their larger siblings in major cities.