Unlike traditional papers, online-only publications don’t have to reform their system and bring their existing content to fit the Web.

“The biggest challenge is to develop a system. It's easy to produce great content for one day. What's hard is to do it six days a week,” says Lewis.

Lewis proceeded to hire a team of “journalists with not a lot of experience but with immense talent and, most importantly, hunger for good stories.” Working for the website was also an opportunity for the young reporters, since they cover stories they might not have been assigned to in a major print paper.

The website – naturally – puts a lot of emphasis on reader interaction. But it hasn’t resorted to sensational content to drive readership.

Built on a non-profit business model, the news site fulfills what Lewis calls its mission. “We have more than 700 donors who have given us money to pursue that mission, and that's to cover local politics, local housing and education issues, along with the environment and public safety.”

Topics that essentially are what quality newspapers usually cover. So while Lewis doesn’t position VoicesofSanDiego as being “direct competitors with the Union-Tribune” as a general news provider, he does position the website as competing with the paper “on the issues we do cover.”

On the other hand, VoicesofSanDiego.org, and other online-only publications, doesn’t intend on wasting journalistic resources and coverage on stories already reported by newspapers.

“We will only succeed if we're producing stories that are better or new to people. We'll never, in the foreseeable future, replace the paper of record,” says Lewis.

So the website is both a complement and a competitor to the newspaper’s coverage. One of the reasons VoicesofSanDiego can compete is simply cost-related. In the online business model, only about 10% of resources are used for distributing the news (compared to roughly two thirds in print newspapers). That means the rest of the resources can be invested in investigative journalism.

Ad revenues are lower too, but only relatively. The ad rates on VoicesofSanDiego are “between a third and one half the price of similarly sized ads on KPBS.org.”

VoicesofSanDiego, and has been the source of inspiration for similar ventures, such as MinnPost.com. As more and more online-only publications arise, Lewis advises that these concentrate on niche areas, as is the case of the Politico.

Will these news sites complement or compete against traditional newspapers? The answer depends on local newspapers’ own ability to provide in-depth niche coverage, which isn’t their specialty, by definition. But perhaps general news newspapers can rely on these types of outlets for specific items, instead of competing against them?

“These are funded organizations that are hoping to be the new face of local journalism and the answer to the angst many people are feeling as they watch their local news sources wither,” says Lewis.

Source: Media Life through IFRA Executive News Service