If this article was in the "North Post" on Monday, it was distributed all across North City AND North County. Likewise, the South Post is distributed all across South City and South County; and the West Post all over West County and possibly the Central West End.

Which begs the question: Which one do downtown residents who subscribe to the P-D receive?

This is distinct from the Suburban Journals, whose papers cover MUCH smaller zone territories. The distinction between the "South Side Journal" and the "South City Journal" appears to be Chippewa Street. Then there's the "Southwest City Journal", "North Side Journal", etc, etc.

It's more about segmenting the advertising market than about providing service to specific communities. Most articles get recycled heavily; what changes is what is emphasized on page one.

What is happening in ONSL has tremendous citywide impact. This is grassroots revitalization of the sort that one found in Soulard, Lafayette Square and Hyde Park in the 1970's and 1980's -- driven by residents and done with great care to urban design.

Come to think of it, the Post was pretty slow to report on these earlier revitalization efforts, too...

If you want some insight into how the Suburban Journals work, here it is. The Journals are intended to be neighborhood newspapers, thus the smaller zones. The newspapers in the south (South Side, South City, Southwest City, Oakville-Mehlville, South County and Southwest County) are all produced out of the South office. The North office produces a completely different lineup of newspapers, as does the West office. Each office gives preference to the stories it produces, but it often has access to relevant material produced in other locations and the editors may chose to use stories from other offices. Whether one story makes it into one, two, three or all of the publications produced out of one office is decided by relevance to that community and available space. A St. Louis City Hall story wouldn't go in county editions. A Carondolet story might not make it into the Southwest City paper. The editorial department has control over which stories go in and advertising has nothing to do with it. What is on page one is decided by which stories have most relevance to a particular geographic area.