Sure, "local sells" remains the mantra, but what's local anymore?

The story was tucked away in a two-inch hole above a stack of ads in the back of A-section, its placement offering no clue to its significance.

"Russia, China unite to slam U.S." said the twenty-four-point headline, just like it was a news brief about a local break-in.

But it wasn't. Instead, Vladimir Putin was arriving in Beijing to get all warm and cuddly with a former Communist rival--two countries united, it appears, in antipathy toward Canada's greatest ally, the United States.

Did the Calgary Herald editorialize on the issue? Not on a day when Alberta's premier is offering to give away a second round of four-hundred-dollar bonus checks to the province's citizens. Not on a day when Calgary's city hall is engaged in a roaring debate about whether to expand parking downtown.

Nope, in our minds at least, a troubling nascent alliance between a former--and future--superpower just didn't cut it on the priority list. In fact, not one of our editorial writers even thought it worth bringing up for discussion.

Canadian papers have a reputation for being more outward-looking than our U.S. counterparts. That popular perception, however, is not necessarily borne out by what appears in print.

For us, international pretty much begins and ends with Afghanistan, where Canadian troops are seeing their first real action in years--a commitment our so-called "peace-dividend" citizens are hotly debating, although our new government is pretty darn proud of it. (Check out CanadianAlly.com.)

Instead, we remain preoccupied with the fortunes of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose Conservative Party won a minority government in the January federal election. And Alberta Premier Ralph Klein's retirement date. And, oh yeah, the number of new interchanges being built in Calgary.

Like most newspaper editors, I've lived the mantra that local sells. I still do.

But not all local, all the time.

We almost always underestimate the curiosity of readers. They know, like we do, that the state of our schools and the number of pot-growing operations in suburban duplexes are important to us only because they're happening in our city. And, with apologies to Bogie, the problems of one little city don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.

Like many North American cities, Calgary was established by hard-working white men and women. But, by 2020, fully half of this city's population will be non-white, many of them immigrants from around the world, drawn to our oil revenue-driven prosperity. People from Asia, the Middle East, South and Central America--heck, even the United States.

So, we ask ourselves: "What is local news to these citizens?"

In the global village, newspapers must also think globally. Or, considered from another perspective, redefine what local is.

Local is about the things that happen--anywhere--that might one day come home to roost.

Had we paid more attention a few years ago to a seemingly insignificant, small-time thug named Osama bin-Laden, 9/11 might have been thwarted. But when Flight 11 drove into the North Tower, it became a very local story.

Our readers count on us to let them know when there are trends around the world that we need to know about. Not the stuff that is of little consequence, but the trends that may one day mean the difference between a peaceful world, or one that puts us--or our way of life--at risk.

Hugo Chavez freezes the assets of Total SA. Just another tinpot dictator on the loose--until it affects the price of gas.

That's a big part of our job--to watch world trends, and explain to our readers what it means, or will mean, while we still have a chance to do something about it.

When we choose to focus exclusively on the local, we are giving in to the easy and safe. There's no future in that.

Doug Firby is editorial pages editor at the Calgary Herald. E-mail DFirby@ theherald.canwest.com