Clark Humphrey has coined the term microbrew journalism, to describe the concept that ‘like the beer biz, the news biz needs to decentralize … And it needs to expand from bland, singular, everything-to-everybody products toward more compelling tastes that consumers will actively seek out and loyally support.’
It’s an apt analogy. Ten or fifteen years ago, beer – and coffee – were the exclusive domain of national, centrally-located monoliths. The explosion of microbreweries and coffee houses did not put the old companies entirely out of business, but it did change the quality and the expectations. Even the smallest towns get good beer and coffee now. You can’t say the same about their newspapers.