How the NYT covers some international stories in the exact opposite way of most US papers

Small American papers, and midsize ones as well -- which no longer have their own foreign bureaus -- don't really do much of their own international news anymore. They use AP stories or others. But they do touch on international stories occasionally. There's the "Local couple was on that cruise boat in the Mediterranean" kind of nonsense. But there are also more significant ones that have been done really well, such as reporting on how the local Haitian community in city X is responding to news of the earthquake.

It's doing local coverage of an international issue, and it can work really well, or be tacky.

I love how the New York Times, though, in particular, has a knack for doing the opposite. They have the resources to send their foreign correspondents to cover aspects of stories that are mostly based within other departments, like metro or sports.

And so for example, in tomorrow's paper, Keith Bradsher (based in Hong Kong) hangs out with Jeremy Lin's proud grandmother in Taipei.

Now you could say this isn't the most important story to cover internationally, and that'd be true, but they have the luxury of being able to cover a lot. And the truth is this stuff makes for good and interesting reading.