Online upstarts deliver news without the paper

It was a pretty robust report, but it wasn't in the Chicago Tribune or Sun-Times, the major papers in town. In fact, it wasn't on paper at all, but in the Chi-Town Daily News, a small but growing online upstart that is trying to succeed with a relentlessly local focus.

"We don't cover state politics or national politics," said Geoff Dougherty, a former Tribune reporter who founded Chi-Town in 2005. "We don't have an auto writer or fashion writer. We cover local public affairs."

With an annual budget of about $500,000, a full-time reporting staff of six, a team of freelancers, and 100 volunteer citizen journalists, the site operates as a nonprofit and draws 65,000 unique visitors a month. In comparison, Tribune's website draws 5.7 million so-called uniques a month, according to Nielsen Online.

Small, feisty, hyperlocal, nonprofit - is this a glimpse of the future of city journalism online?

To date, there is nothing in Boston quite like Chi-Town; nothing like an online news site with a reporting staff to compete with - and perhaps dream of supplanting - the major newspaper websites in town, like Boston.com. Yet a number of nonprofit, low-budget news websites akin to Chi-Town are popping up across the nation. These sites, often run by former newspaper reporters and editors, aim to fill what they see as a void in very local news coverage. Some are trying to position themselves to capitalize should the major paper in town go under, a prospect that every day seems less speculative as some newspapers, including the Globe, find themselves increasingly in dire straits.

Some media observers view these fledgling news sites as promising ventures, even if they don't, and might never, deploy the reporting muscle of a major paper.

"Right now, there is no institution, agency, or online service, whatever you want to call it, to replace newspapers," said Lou Ureneck, chairman of Boston University's journalism department. "None of the news-gathering organizations that have news reports online . . . come anywhere close to having the kind of journalistic capacity that you find in your typical metropolitan newspaper."

"If there is an accident on the highway, that will get covered," added Bob Rosenthal, head of Suffolk University's journalism school. "But if there have been a series of accidents, no one will take three weeks or months to do an investigation on that particular roadway. That kind of in-depth examination of government, we'll lose that" without newspapers.

Yet these newer online outlets are trying to make a go of it. The Chi-Town Daily News mantra is "Your neighborhood. Your city. Your news." Other sites following a similar approach include the newhavenindependent.org, a Twin Cities website called minnpost.com, and voiceofsandiego.org. Voice of San Diego, for example, has 10 paid full-time staffers, two part-timers, and about 70,000 unique monthly visitors, said Camille Gustafson, the site's director of development.

"Our funding comes from large donors, small donors, grants, and advertising," she said in an e-mail. "All sources are currently growing."

In Seattle, 20 former staffers from the Seattle Post Intelligencer, which published its last print edition on March 17, banded together recently to launch seattlepostglobe.org. About three new stories are posted daily.

The site began with $6,000 in donations and its staff will have to work without pay until revenue begins to rise.

"Our core mission is trying to replace a lot of the civic functions that the P-I did - city hall coverage and issues that affect the lives of people in Seattle," said Kery Murakami, the founder of the site, which has won a local TV station as a major sponsor.

The PostGlobe has formidable competition in town from the Seattle Times, which continues in print and whose website draws 2.2 million unique monthly visitors. And there remains the online-only version of the Post-Intelligencer, with its 1.4 million unique users.

Murakami, who works as a reporter, photographer, and fund-raiser for seattlepostglobe.org, said he's optimistic his site will survive. He's encouraged that nonprofit efforts like Chi-town seem to be gaining a foothold.

"I hope that people value the work that we do and donate their money," Murakami said.

Chi-Town's Dougherty compares his financial model to that of National Public Radio - much of his budget is covered by foundation grants and corporate sponsorships - and he has big ambitions for his venture. But he also believes that his best chance for success is by not trying to compete on the major story of the day, but to have his reporters, whose salaries start at about $25,000 a year, focus on under-reported local news. For example, his site didn't cover the recent corruption and impeachment trial of Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor, which was easily the biggest story for months in the Windy City.

He doesn't envision his venture as a replacement for the Tribune, but rather as doing work that the Tribune might not be able to afford or consider a priority anymore.

A Tribune spokeswoman declined to comment on Chi-Town.

In Greater Boston, some news sites have surfaced but with smaller ambitions than Chi-Town's. They focus on individual communities and are often managed by one person with contributions from residents. These outlets include the Melrose Mirror website, insidemedford.com, and yourarlington.com. There are also a host of websites sponsored by local media companies, such as those owned by GateHouse Media and Boston.com's growing roster of hyperlocal "Your Town" sites.

There are also sites that draw news consumers but don't pretend to originate much content. Adam Gaffin, for example, runs universalhub.com from his Roslindale home. He depends on content from Boston's dailies, weekly newspapers, local blogs, Boston Police Department reports, and Twitter feeds to link to his site. Universal Hub has become his full-time occupation since he was laid off last February from his job as an editor at a trade publication. He has no reporters but he considers what he does a form of journalism.

"People still want to know what is going on. They want to be told," said Gaffin, who said his site attracts 4,000 unique visitors a day and features local ads. He said the site is profitable but not enough to support a family. He declined to provide figures. "Journalism will not disappear," he said. "Someone will figure out the business model."

Johnny Diaz can be reached at jodiaz@globe.com.