It makes everyone step up their game.

But, how’s this for a winning strategy? Get to know the person/persons authoring those big blogs…just think of the links/traffic you could win if they like what you’re doing
Miriam

However, I think you need to look more closely at what it is *exactly* that the local newspapers are offering before you can say if it’s good or bad –is it *really* “essentially the same thing”?

If newspapers use blog software to make it easier/faster for their “traditional” journalists to report news events, you may have little to fear –they may not really be your “competitor”.

However, if newspapers offer a platform (plus traffic) to “real” bloggers –people who might have set up their own WP blogs otherwise–, that *may* be bad news. (You may even want to consider *joining* the platform rather than taking them on directly, although that presents obvious control issues.)

In general, as long as you can offer “something that the other guys can’t” –a unique insight/perspective/voice–, you should, in principle, be able to be successful (as long as you can build the traffic)…