I’VE SAID BEFORE that hard news is the “killer app” for big media, since it’s something they can do that bloggers can’t do as easily. But not everyone agrees:

The Boston Globe is closing its foreign bureaus as part of the newspaper’s efforts to trim costs, editor Martin Baron said today.

The move follows the recent decision by the New York Times Co.’s New England Media Group, of which the Globe is the biggest holding, to offer buyouts to employees to cut some 125 jobs, including 19 in the newsroom and editorial pages. In a memo to staff, Baron said shutting the foreign bureaus avoids cutting about a “dozen or so” additional newsroom jobs.

I said earlier that the Blogosphere has more reporters in Iraq than many major media outlets. And certainly more now than the Boston Globe.