But I think that your average person doesn't realize how gutted they are these days.

I'm betting, if you go and look at the N&A newspaper you're referencing, that the stories you mention -- the Masters, the Nationals, and other routine MLB stuff -- are all AP bylines or were written by sportswriters at other papers that the same group owns. For example, a lot of Richmond Times-Dispatch bylines and even Daily Progress bylines run in The Roanoke Times these days. Smaller papers just don't have the staff they used to and are stretched very, very thin.

You would think, yes, that the Lynchburg paper would allocate whatever resources it has to Liberty Athletics, specifically if VT is visiting -- two birds with one stone.

But again, smaller local newspapers are barely hanging on. It just seems to get worse and worse and worse. Any time I do get a copy of a newspaper -- which is rare -- I'm struck by how physically small and thin it is. There's almost no advertising in them anymore.

Local newspapers are going to continue to consolidate and disappear, probably until there's only a few national-level newspapers left: The New York Times, the Washington Post, the USA Today (which isn't on the level of those two others by a long shot) ... maybe some others I can't think of right now.