Local papers probably have terrible budgets these days and maybe not even a picture editor, relying on a terribly outdated and never properly built library.
Our local paper uses some pretty ropey images to support stories, such as road accidents or something involving the police. Presumably because they can't afford to send someone out to take a photo at the scene, even though it's in the local area. So we'll get an aerial shot of a motorway or a picture of a police car with the caption 'Police car'.
There was also a time where it was probably accepted that someone would just nick a picture from a Google search, but that's now a big no no (for obvious copyright reasons) and the next option is to seek permission from the photographer, who might well want money.. and that take time etc - so, sod it, use any old image.
Online, pretty much every story needs an image. At least in the print editions, you can more easily just write up a story and not need to get an up to date or accurate photo for everything.
