The line has blurred, but I wouldn't go quite that far. Most papers still try to draw a distinct line between beat reporters and columnists.
Take the BuffNews Bills coverage -- you'll hardly ever see Gaughan or Wilson insert personal opinion into their beat coverage, or Sully write a just-the-facts gamer.
Chuck Pollock does both (and IMO a damn good job of keeping the gamer and column separate), but the Times Herald doesn't exactly have the same staffing as the News, either...
My local (small-town) dailies?
OTH: Bills/Sabres/Bonnies beats and tons of preps coverage; local racing and outdoor features. AP feeds for most other sports. Their annual football pullout beats the crap out of anything from the News.
My only quibble: they pick up most of their Penn State stuff from one of the Pittsburgh papers. In my opinion, that's like reading the NYC papers for Red Sox news...
Bradford Era: preps (as long as it's BAHS ), youth sports, local bowling scores, sometime Bonnies coverage, and AP for everything else. The 'Error' might have more local news in the front section, but I bet you can guess which one of the two I subscribe to.