Many moons ago, when people wanted to find out about new art galleries that were opening, read movie reviews, and get advice on where to go for their next vacation, they opened the newspaper and skipped ahead to the entertainment and travel sections. However, budget cuts have forced many newspapers - even large national broadsheets - to cut these sections from their papers or reduce their entertainment reporting staff. Now where do we get our travel and entertainment news?

Most papers do still have a travel and entertainment section, it's just that they don't do their own in house reporting anymore. They don't send reporters out to a new hotel to judge how nice they are - they rely on second hand reports from other travelers, on star ratings from national and international accreditation systems, and from articles written by reporters who work for wire services like Reuters and the Canadian Press, all of which is cheaper than funding their own reviews.

In fact, most papers now sport the exact same travel and leisure sections, with a couple of differences to allow for local displays of the paintings or for community theater group schedules, which are pasted in as-sent by the group putting on the event or in some cases reported on by a part time reporter who has other jobs within the newspaper or a freelancer who can be hired for a one off job.

Because newspaper reporters no longer go out looking for arts and travel news in many locales, people have gotten fed up with reading the newspapers and have turned to local blogs to bring them this type of information. There are travel, entertainment, theater, movie, and restaurant bloggers - enough that everyone should be able to find one whose judgment they trust. These bloggers make money through website advertising and commissions.

Here is a list of what some consider the top travel blogs to follow. As well as the website belonging to a widely recognized networking specialist, BNI Forest City networking group.

Another source of news and reviews and entertainment related topics you can also turn to is forums and user review sites like Urban Spoon (for restaurants) and Travelocity (for hotels and travel activities) where users who have done what you plan to do can report back about their experiences, eliminating the need for a reporter and giving the power back to the people. Just be careful of plants who were hired by the companies themselves or their rivals to give reviews that are too good or too bad.