In the United States, major regional newspapers have slashed their Washington coverage.

An excerpt from the NYT story:

Faced with declining advertising revenues and competition from the Web, midsize, regional dailies across the country have been retrenching in recent years to focus on local news. That has scaled back their Washington coverage, and their national ambitions.

“There was a time when every paper regarded it as a point of pride to have their own voice on every official story in Washington,” said Peter S. Canellos, the Washington bureau chief for The Boston Globe, which is owned by The New York Times Company and has shrunk its bureau to 10 people from 12. “But readers have so many other ways to get the basic news now. For that reason, and reasons of diminishing resources, covering every official story is a luxury that many can no longer afford.”

The Dallas Morning News, a property of the Belo Corporation, recently cut its bureau to 4 reporters from 10. The Tribune Company, which owns The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune, consolidated its newspapers’ once separate, once independent Washington bureaus a year ago, along with its broadcast division, into one high-tech center. It cut about 30 percent of its reporting slots at the nine papers that are in the new bureau, with the ax falling disproportionately on The Hartford Courant; Newsday (to 5 reporters from 10) and the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., paper (to one from two).

Journalists generally lament such cuts, saying they can lead to generic articles from news services and less investigative or original reporting.

“We were trying very hard to do original stuff, and we were able to do more with more people,” said Timothy M. Phelps, the bureau chief for Newsday.

But some say the cuts are useful because they mean less redundancy and can force a smarter use of resources, since newspapers long ago lost their monopoly on the Washington scoop.

“You’ve got to get the most out of the dollars you have, and if you’ve got to sacrifice anything, Washington is one area where you can do it,” said Robert W. Mong Jr., the editor of The Dallas Morning News.

That is because of the glut of news out of Washington from so many sources. Unlike in most cities, events all over the highly wired capital are broadcast live and transcripts are instantly available. Congressional committees Webcast their hearings. Scores of industry newsletters track incremental steps in legislation. The Supreme Court releases same-day audio recordings of some cases. Public-interest groups do original research and are making raw data available on the Web.