[mattlutze]

No, I said an article about a culture only tangentially related to the reader will be less relevant than an article directly related to the reader.

(To note, the article wasn't about American culture, it was a personal interest piece on a person who was unprepared for the effects of the success he experienced.)

If by "other places in the world" you mean areas that are small enough or have an ephemeral-enough regional identity to have developed strong codependent identities with other regions, then I would certainly agree.

Living in a number of places has shown me that, in larger countries/communities with defined identities, internally facing publications will publish stories that are strongly relevant to their reader.

Because, as I said, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to spend that sort of space on an article that wasn't relevant to the reader.