I agree that strong local newspapers are a key. I think the real problem is that the two big newspapers are so busy buying photos and stories from AP press that they have lost their swagger and feel on the city some time ago. I also believe that when a newspaper starts endorsing say a political candidates or imposing it's view then that paper has a conflict of interests.

The presses job is to report the story not give personal commentary and devote pages and pages to personal opinions. If you look at the business model you will see the flaws...why write in an old letter to the paper when I could just blog, twitter, or live-journal and still have the same effect.

Instead of just being like everyone else and telling everyone how they should think...try to just report the stories and and relate it so people can understand and I am sure you will have a winner.