local newspapers are of dubious worth

Many local newspapers are of dubious worth,

telling people things they already know,

recycling press releases from local councils,

and advertising the shops

people walk past every day

(or did until lockdown).

The world is changing.

News is online,

as are the press releases,

things everyone already knows

and the plethora of advertising.

 If journalism actually investigated anything.

It increasingly doesn't, and that's true of national press as much as local. Journalists no longer go to conferences and meetings, they just report the speeches which are released a day in advance. No need to mix with inconvenient ordinary people, you see? The problem with that is that if you go to a conference to hear the speech in person because it HASN'T been pre-released you'll talk to other people there and find out the feelings behind the conference, you'll get reaction to the speech, talk to others with ideas, and so on.

But nobdoy does this, they just recycle Twitter and regurgitate press releases. ANYONE can do that. So what exactly is the purpose of the journalist now? And what is the need for newspapers to carry their regurgitations?