There is so much more information out there now that 5-10 years ago, that a news agency can't be covering everything everywhere at all times. I would think that monitoring the message boards and blogs would be wise way to find information and evaluate peoples opinions, alhouigh anonymous opinions can be somewhat dubious.
I know that I have posted some obscure stories that eventually wound up on the Herald's site, but then again I post a lot of "uninteresting things", also.