Hoople - 9:17 pm on Oct 25, 2009 (gmt 0)

For a small site in a micro niche or one just starting out they will help somewhat. For a medium site (>35 back links) they'll be part of the generic links. Don't count them toward your 'joining your neighborhood' links or establishing the site as an authority.

I would look to see if the newspaper has a forum divided by region; then you could get widget + location links.

Beyond 50-75 backlinks the value diminishes greatly. If the site topic is not related to news or newsprint media I wouldn't bother as most tend to nofollow links.