My answer -- a story without quotes -- would be "colorless."  American media are consolidating shops, slashing staff and shipping off advertising, billing and even news-gathering services to places like India (streaming audio means your city council can be "reported" by keyboardists in Calcutta).

As we watch media evolve, here are a few recent quotes that caught my eye:

• Sacramento Bee asked J. Clark Kelso, who's been empowered by a federal judge to overhaul prison health care in California, whether people should commit a crime to get health care: "How many people, if they really knew the conditions in San Quentin, if they knew what it was like to be in Avenal, would they really trade their freedom? I doubt it."
• New York Times story about the number of American adults with chronic kidney disease rising from 20 million 10 years ago to 26 million now. Patient Rita Miller said: "The doctor walked over to my bed and said, 'You have kidney failure -- your kidneys are like dried-up peas.'" And this from National Kidney Foundation official Terri Smith: "(People) are very aware of hypertension and diabetes, but it was a revelation to me that people didn't get the connection to kidney disease. People have no idea they should eat less than a teaspoon of salt a day."
• New York Times story about how the nation's fiscal disaster is affecting charitable giving to hospitals. Greg Pope, a Tennessee hospital official, believes hospitals that do a good job telling the good they do will succeed: "We need to be unbashful about sharing our case and our need for support."
• New York Times story about how new Web-only media are serving as watchdogs over misdeeds by public officials and others. Semiretired San Diego businessman Buzz Wooley, who helped found the nonprofit media venture, VoiceofSanDiego.org and who believes nonprofit reporting is the way to go: "Information is now a public service as much as it's a commodity. It should be thought of the same way as education, health care. It's one of the things you need to operate a civil society, and the market isn't doing it very well."  

So, how important to you is a physical newspaper in your hand or access to online news sources? In terms of health care in the Valley -- how polluted is the air today, can you burn wood, is jogging in the Valley a peril to your heart and lungs? And and in a more universal sense -- what were the test parameters that said Vitamin C and E won't improve your health, did I take those pills that have been recalled, did my baby eat tainted food from China?

Where do you find the context to make a good judgment (and maybe a good quote)?