I'd suggest that long-term, the opposite is the case.
OK, short-term "DRESSING ROOM SPLIT" sells a few extra copies, but long-term knowing that the local paper can be trusted to ask the right questions and is on the side of the supporters and is clued up as to the real issues is infinitely more likely to get me to regularly buy a paper.
I agree wholeheartedly, but you and I aren't representative. I think the average man on the street has little to no interest in tactics.
The media needs to find that medium between trotting out tired cliches in place of actual analysis and the full on tactical autism like that likes of Jonathan Wilson publish.