Per the Reporter, Santa Fe's alt-weekly, it has ZERO in-person Reporters at its Ruidoso and Alamogordo, New Mexico papers. Alamogordo was a print daily pre-COVID. And, it, at least (dunno about Ruidoso) was Gannett's before the merger. So, can't even blame Craphouse.

Thankfully for Land of Disenchantment journalism, it sold off the Deming Headlight and the Silver City Sun-News to the owner of the Silver City Daily Press. It closed its old rival, but it has local reporters, which neither of those Gannett papers did. And, it's hired back a long-time Deming writer.

Oh, both those papers were also pre-merger Gannett; can't blame Craphouse there, either.

And Cruces itself sucks, as noted. The El Paso Times is also Gannett, so its lack of non-local environmental and border reporting is coming from there. Problem? Yes. They're in two different states, which affects reporting on Rio Grande and Pecos water rights, for starters.

And, barf me on El Paso staff titles.  There is is an "executive editor," still but NO "managing editor." There IS a "content strategist" and a "content coach." There's also NO "city editor." There's ONE government reporter. Two staff photogs, which means reporters are likely expected/required to shoot pix off smartphones.

Note this quote from Jay Rosen about Gannett et al:

“It’s more of a financial firm. It’s more in the category of a private equity company or a hedge fund than a newspaper company,” Rosen tells SFR.

About right.