John, I liked the line about the crime reporter. Now consider this reformulation: “An environmental reporter always wants a good disaster to write about. The reporter’s good luck is many other people’s bad luck.” Harsh? Yes, but fair, I think (David Whitehouse refers).
As for the general idea of the Daily Afterthought, to an extent, newspapers have always been that way. Many people buy them specifically to look for stories about things they already knew about. No one has better drawn out this distinction between the “olds” and the “news” than Sir Terry Pratchett in his fantastic satire, The Truth.