I assume there's also been a fairly dramatic falloff in professional reviewers given the state of newspapers. Not that people writing reviews as a hobby or as a twenty-something working for pennies for the "exposure" can't do a good job. But you're probably going to get a lot less consistency if nothing else.
True, back when newspapers were a "every city has one or two" there'd often be a local reviewer writing for that paper. Then it went to syndicated reviews and now I'm not sure I can even name a single reviewer.
Also, you have access to much more information about a movie if you want it, instead of having to figure out if you want to see a movie based on three inches of column.
