The New York Times has a good piece on  the absence of newspaper reporters on the campaign trail. 

 "Among the newspapers that have chosen not to dispatch reporters to cover the two leading Democratic candidates on a regular basis are USA Today, the nation’s largest paper, as well as The Boston Globe, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Baltimore Sun, The Miami Herald and The Philadelphia Inquirer (at least until the Pennsylvania primary, on April 22, began to loom large)."

Those reporters who are sent on the campaign trail do so at a cost.  Jon Meacham, Newsweek editor estimates

"one writer (doing double duty for print and the Web) to ride full-time on the Obama and Clinton planes — at a cost that can exceed $30,000 a month per person." 

In the end, no matter the cost,  the reader is left with fewer perspectives.

• http://www.nytimes.com...