Smaller newspapers:

Akron (Ohio) Beacon-Journal:

• A site heavy with advertising and big on Cleveland area sports news (although duly proud of their double-A Aeros of the Eastern League), but nevertheless a nicely designed and easily navigated site. Don't get hooked into its Ohio-promoting domain.
• By the way, you get a free trial, but after that it's $8.95 to enter the digital domain.
  

Anchorage Daily News:

• The largest paper in our largest state. This is a McClatchy paper with some fine writers on the "last frontier." It also runs an extensive summer internship program -- now, there's an adventure.

Bellingham (Wash.) Herald:

• Not much in the way of news at the Herald's site. About the best one can say of it is that it provides a nice introduction to the community.
• The Herald is a morning paper recently converted from an afternoon paper. This path appears to have been the path of survival for U.S. afternoon dailies.

Bergen Record: (see Record of Hackensack, N.J.)

Billings (Mont.) Gazette:

(Binghamton, N.Y.) Press and Sun-Bulletin:  ***URL not responding (04/16/01)

• In the middle of the snow belt of New York State, this Web site strives to be an interactive welcoming guide to the region and posts only local news.
• Though touted as Gannett's Binghamton paper, its offices are in nearby Vestal, N.Y.

Birmingham (Ala.) Post-Herald

• A good example of a Scripps-Howard newspaper that mixes news with promotion of the home city in a balanced manner.

Boone Newspapers:

• Small newspapers in nine states, not many that knock one's socks off.

Boston Phoenix:

• The once cutting-edge publication of the counterculture is still going strong, but with less of a cutting edge.

Burlington (Vt.) Free Press:

• Like so many of the smaller Gannett newspapers, the Free Press site offers a warm guide to life in Burlington.  After long neglecting its online presence, the Free Press seems to be finding some Internet energy.
• There was a time, perhaps two decades ago, when the Free Press was the best small paper in New England.  Gannett changed all that, and it has been an uphill climb ever since.

The Capital (Annapolis, Md.):

• My hometown newspaper, and a good one for those of us who live in its circulation area, and its online version is quite good for a small newspaper despite heavy doses of Chamber of Commerce boosterism and lots of home page ad clutter..
• The Capital handles some things nicely but could be a much better newspaper. It recently changed ownership hands (2007). Lots of young reporters around with the U. of Maryland nearby, and that usually means lousy salaries.  
• Lots of ex-Navy customers too to keep the focus on what's good about the Naval Academy.

Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune:

• This is the site of trib.com, the server of the Star-Tribune. Only major stories make it to the news site.

Charlotte (N.C.) Observer:

• The little bright star in the Knight-Ridder chain.
• A surprisingly comprehensive Web site, and one of the member newspapers where access to The Wire of the Associated Press can be had.
• The Observer often covers the capitol in Raleigh better than the Raleigh paper (though it's a good battle), but Charlotte is known for its coverage of banking and of the Southern Baptists.

CNS (Coastal News Service):

• Folks in Northern California that eschew the papers in San Francisco, L.A., or cities on the Oregon Coast can get their news from this site.

http://www.caller.com

• The Dallas Press Club has given this mid-sized paper several awards.
• According to its own trumpeters, the Web version regularly outscoops the street paper.
• This site re-ran the 1897 New York Sun editorial answering the question of 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon, "Is there a Santa Claus?" indicating there's a literary journalist's heart beating somewhere in Texas.

Daily News (Longview, Washington):

• One may have to navigate to nail down the news from the paper here, but it will be worth the trouble. In 1981, this 25,000 circulating daily won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the nearby Mount St. Helen's eruption; a true writer's paper. A good Web site here from a parent company that's gone into the Web business.
•  The staff has part ownership of the paper.

Daily Oklahoman:

• This little newspaper proved how little can be big when it comes to covering local news that touches the entire nation as happened with the bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City.
• Teamed up now with an Internet portal.  It remains to be seen if this is a good move.

Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal:

Elkhart (Ind.) Truth:  ***It appears this site is not being maintained.

• A small-town, middle-America newspaper trying to put it all on the Web.

Evansville Courier-Press:

• A classy upgrade to this site, borrowing from corporate and professional groups that don't have to change daily.
• .Depends heavily on Flash to give the breaking news, and unfortunately mixes ads in those pictures.

Everett (Wash.) Herald:

• A local paper that devotes lots of attention to the naval bases in its circulation area; this is a fine site put up by a paper in the Washington Post's chain.  
• I particularly like the way they showcase their own columnists (although they sneak the self-syndicated Tom Philpott into the list).

Fairbanks News-Miner:

• The News-Miner calls itself the newspaper of Alaska's "Heartland," and truly is at the "end of the road." A small paper by circulation standards with a pretty big job to do and certainly a lot of country to cover.
• Reports of alumni at this paper are mixed, but tend toward the disenchanted.
• NOTE:  If page will not load, search for a formatting link near the top of the page.

Fargo (N.D.) Forum:

Gannett Suburban Newspapers (White Plains, N.Y.) 
recently renamed NY Journal News:

• The news from three counties just north of New York City is chronicled in the 12 suburban newspapers owned by Gannett and lumped at this site formerly known as "Westchester Today," but recently relaunched as NYJournal News.com

Grand Rapids Press

• The Press does something that no other online paper I've seen does -- give exceptional play to local obituaries; although, others are beginning to see the value of such coverage. (See my commentary, "Celebrating 1998 through its obituaries.")

Hampton Roads (Va.) Pilot:

• A nice site for a small newspaper.

Hermiston Herald:

• A small paper in Eastern Oregon.
• Seems to have leaned toward the commercial with its Web presence (what else is new?).

Honolulu Star-Bulletin:  On October 30, 1999, the Star-Bulletin was scheduled to close down. Some employees and groups fought the closing, and it appears a lengthy court battle is lingering. The paper still operating as of January, 2000, though Gannett has filed a countersuit against the court order that's keeping it running. For a close, in-house report, visit reporter Ian Lind's "diary" of the situation at http://home.hawaii.rr.com/chesneylind/sb_diary.htm.   It should become clear this was not just another newspaper closing; this is a strategic war between the forces of corporate newspaperdom (who preach "civic journalism" then ignore the local community as they seek to maximize profits) and the forces of crusading, idealistic journalism (who have little to back them but energy and public support -- and all that the First Amendment implies about the cozying up of government and corporations).

[Ian Lind now does his own blog--including comments on the Star-Bulletin--and appears to be commercially successful with it.]  http://www.ilind.net/

Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho):

• One finds here a pretty site with a link to "news policy" that describes how to get news into the newspaper.
• Don't look for news at this Web site, though. This Gannett paper is not posting news.

Independent Register of Brodhead, Wisconsin:

• A graphically rich site that shows how small papers can cover their regions electronically. City page, local sports, etc.; it's all here

Jacksonville (N.C.) Daily News:

• A coastal North Carolina daily that does a good job of covering local news, which includes things that go on at the well-known Camp Lejeune Marine base nearby.

Juneau Empire:

• The newspaper of Alaska's capital. A smaller, more locally oriented newspaper than the Anchorage paper.
• Overly busy homepage with lots of commercial clutter.
  

Lewiston (Maine) Sun Journal:

Trying to do community journalism in the Northeast.  But just what is the difference between "community journalism" and Chamber of Commerce boosterism?

The Sun-Journal covers a lot of land that doesn't have a lot of people, and they do it with a staff of about 35.

Lewiston (Idaho) Tribune:

• Ironically, a small newspaper in Idaho is showing less timidity than its homonym in Maine. Here's an example of what local journalism can do on the Web.

Longview (Wash.) Daily News: (see Daily News of Longview)

Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Journal: ***Great site for a small paper.

• If one knows Lubbock, one knows an avalanche is a near impossibility there. Tradition has it the enterprising founder of the newspaper was told he had a good idea that would bring "an avalanche of news."
• This is the home of Texas Tech. University, and the newspaper makes the most of that.
• Once one gets into the news of this site, however, one finds a wise page of "headlines" that will take one to any story in the newspaper.

Middletown (N.Y.) Times Herald-Record:

• This Ottaway newspaper does a good job of mixing news and information on its Web site, including a small archive of recent stories.

Modesto Bee:

Nashville Banner:

THE NASHVILLE BANNER CEASED PUBLICATION IN FEBRUARY, 1998.
(A new online publication called "Nashville Digest" now occupies this url).

NY Journal News: (see Gannett Suburban Newspapers)

Oregon News Network:

• Not to be outdone by CNS on the coast, other folks in Oregon can keep abreast here.

Pilot Online: The Norfolk (Va.) Pilot:

• This site, which covers much of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Hampton Roads, Va., does a quietly outstanding  job with the news.
• Because of its proximity to several Navy and Marine stations, the site also offers military news as a highlight.

Portland Press-Herald:

• The largest paper in the largest state of New England, but still a second fiddle to The Boston Globe, which once tried to buy this good newspaper.
• In a seemingly good turn in the corporate newspaper world, the Press-Herald has been purchased from Guy-Gannett by the family that owns the Seattle Times.

Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer:

• The N&O is the foundation of what became NandO Net before all of it was sold to McClatchy. The newspaper remains a good daily.
• The N&O's sister paper, The Raleigh Times, closed in 1989.  An upscale bar with that name now occupies the old Times' building.
  

Record (Hackensack, NJ):

• This used to be the Bergen Record, covering the county in which Hackensack lies, but it got too big to be so restricted.
• In a way, this newspaper is to those who left New York City for New Jersey as Newsday is to those who left New York City for Long Island.
• One should probably include the Record in a listing of major metropolitan dailies, but the old Brooklynite in me says, "Can any good thing come out of New Joisey?"

Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise:

• The newspaper of California's "Inland Empire," and PE.Net is its full-service Internet provider that brings profit to the company.
• An aggressive site with lots to offer. One of its unique features is its "Daily Briefing" that provides a better-than-average capsule of the top local stories.

Salem (Mass.) Evening News

Part of the Essex County Newspapers of Massachusetts' North Shore, which also includes the daily papers in Gloucester (on Massachusetts' "other" cape, Cape Ann), and the Newburyport Daily News.

Essex County Newspapers is a subsidiary of Ottaway Newspapers, so one understands up front that the primary aim of the newspapers and their online presentations is financial.  That being said, these papers, especially the Salem paper, have broken some important stories.

One will have to track to it via Essex Online, but this site has some historic reporting and photos of the October, 1991, Nor'easter that damaged much of Cape Ann and sunk a swordfishing boat killing six fishermen-sailors.  Lots of research and many sidebars on the movie made about the storm that became the thriller, "The Perfect Storm."

Skagit Valley Herald (Mount Vernon, Washington):

• First one must learn to pronounce Skagit [Skaa-jit]; then one must learn to love tulips. Then one learns of the community newspaper that promotes the valley and America's largest tulip festival.

Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA):

• The Spokesman-Review's online edition is another of the ad-heavy, busy sites that seem to bury the news.
• This newspaper appears to have made a heavy commitment to bloggers.
  

Daily Item (Sunbury, PA):

• Another of the Ottaway newspapers that does a fine job of presenting local news on its WWW site despite its clear commercial emphases.

Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune:

• One of the most thorough Web sites of a newspaper on the Internet. Uncluttered and easy to move around in, it gives the browser a true picture of electronic journalism.
• The McClatchy newspaper is organized around "teams," a break from traditional desk organization, and the Web site lets the browser contact any team in the building.

Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, Iowa):

Walla Walla (Wash.) Union-Bulletin:

• A Seattle Times affiliate newspaper, part of the Blethen group.
• One can access all the newspapers from this site, and there is an annoying sameness to each of them, not necessarily in content but in form and presentation..

Washington Newspaper Publishers Association:

• This organization represents many weekly and semi-weekly newspapers published in the State of Washington.

Washington Times:

• The other daily newspaper in the nation's capitol; it is staunchly conservative and financed by the Unification Church, whose members are popularly known as "Moonies" after the church founder, a Korean minister, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Readers will probably find more conservative politics here, however, than conservative religion.
• This paper has given its Web presence a high priority and consistently ranks as one of the top twenty sites. In May, 2000, the paper purchased what was left of UPI.

Wyoming (Cheyenne) Tribune Eagle:

• A small paper specializing in local news with a fine Web site. The paper distinguished itself in its coverage of the brutal, homophobic Matthew Shepard murder. Archives are at http://www.wyomingnews.com/mshepard/Matthew.htm

Wichita Eagle:

• One of the many fine metropolitan newspapers in the Knight-Ridder chain.

Yakima Herald-Republic:

• The Herald's Web site is a nice presentation of top stories and community news.
• A good lineup of local columnists as well.