Jon Ham’s commentary about reasons behind declining newspaper circulation was picked up by two nationally watched media weblogs: Tapscott’s Copy Desk by Mark Tapscott, Director of The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Media and Public Policy, and Jim Romenesko’s media blog at the Poynter Institute. Ham argued the problem can be traced to a mindset and stories that reflect a love of big government and the welfare state in which government programs are featured in positive terms and recipients of the public’s money decry the consequences of potential cuts. Meantime, Charlotte World’s March 18 Media Watch column lamented that most major papers have cut back on capital coverage, but that in our state, the Locke Foundation has “moved into the breach, doing solid investigative work with real reporters such as Don Carrington and Paul Chesser, one of World Newspaper’s former editors.” The same issue also ran a story detailing JLF’s expansion efforts in Charlotte.