Across Canada, the media galleries at the legislatures continue to get smaller and lose corporate memory.
The most high-profile example is Ottawa, where Mike Duffy's enoblement to the Senate and Don Newman's coming retirement leave the elder statesman role empty.
But the gallery most pinched by attrition is Queen's Park. In recent years, it's collapsed from more than 40 full-time members to barely half that.
What's worse, turnover and attrition is reducing the ranks of long-time observers who know the beat.
To some, the fear is that there will be less scrutiny of government. Certainly a large gallery can cover more angles, giving the opposition and stakeholders more channels to get their story out.
But the job of the media is not to oppose, but to inform. And it is that critical function that is on life support.
Government is hugely complex. From negative void coefficients in nuclear reactors to the Shapiro model of school funding to the debate between cap-and-trade or carbon tax, these are difficult concepts to grasp and communicate.
Experience with the subject matter allows reporters to learn how to best inform their readers of these issues, holding their attention without going over their heads or patronizing them.
Experience also allows a journalist to call b.s. better. If you saw Floyd Laughren pull a trick back in 1995, you know how it'll end next time and can get there sooner. That forces the participants to elevate their game and be more forthright in their communications.
Meanwhile, reporters are being asked to not only write stories, but also shoot video and record audio. That reduces their ability to research and fact-check. Coverage becomes "what" instead of "why."
Government is important. But the easy story - be it scandal or the Gaines-Burger of the day - isn't always the important story. Long-time reporters are better able to sort through the noise and find the key fact.
Sadly, Queen's Park is seeing many of its best leave for a variety of reasons, but mostly industry contraction. Rumours of cuts at the CBC fall on the heels of veteran Globe columnist Murray Campbell's departure. The Sun and CP lost good reporters to more secure positions in the apparatus of government.
The future of the industry may be an increasing relegation of the professionals to only collect the "what," while amateurs like yours truly provide the "why." This "CP or free" model may make sense in publishers' boardrooms, but it reduces the independence of the media. It also injures the ability of individual reporters to build a global understanding of their files that can put context around the facts.
Next week is the Queen's Park gallery's annual Spring Fling in Toronto. It's an informal event where the party leaders make viciously funny speeches, often at the expense of their critics in the fourth estate.
This year, I expect it will be a gentle affair. After all, you never mock a person on their sick bed.