Horace Greeley on local news

From this overall excellent take on how Facebook’s latest changes will affect news publishers, a quote from New York Tribune founding editor Horace Greeley on where local newspapers should be placing their focus:

“The subject of greatest interest to an average human being is himself; next to that he is most concerned about his neighbors. Asia and the Tongo Islands stand a long way after these in his regard…Do not let a new church be organized, or new members be added to one already existing, a farm be sold, a new house be raised, a mill be set in motion, a store be opened, nor anything of interest to a dozen families occur, without having the fact duly though briefly chronicled in your columns. If a farmer cuts a big tree, or grows a mammoth beet, or harvests a bounteous yield of wheat or corn, set forth the fact as concisely and unexceptionally as possible.”

I am not sure this has been improved upon in the intervening 158 years.