Focus: News and information about Sacramento, California’s capitol city. Information categories include Front Page, Business, Culture, Politics, Sports, and Sunday Best.

Started :2008

Staff: co-founded by Geoff Samek, and Ben Ilfeld, who is the chief operating officer; six other employees include an editor in chief, a managing editor, three staff reporters, and a sales manager.

Business: Castle Press LLC, for-profit, advertising supported; heading toward profitability

From About Us:

The Sacramento Press will be the most comprehensive, local news source and information center for the Sacramento Metropolitan Area.

We are a strictly online newspaper. Our writers are primarily volunteer Community Contributors.

We combined the best tools on the web and built an outstanding platform from scratch. This platform enables people to tell stories about their neighborhoods and have thoughtful conversations about these stories. Then our editors place the best content on the front page and section pages to highlight great work.

[...]
We are a for profit business, but we consider ourselves a public trust. The original concept of the corporation was a balance between allowing people to join together for a common goal with some profit potential and demanding that the corporation provide a public service to the nation. In our case, we will provide valuable services to the neighborhoods of Sacramento while showing that this kind of community journalism can be profitable.

Sample stories: “Mayor’s Team Chooses K Street Developers”, “Farm stand coming to McKinley Park”, “Beer Pong champs hail from Sac”, “Second Saturday=Lots to do”, “Utilities measure sparks debate”

Here’s an interview with Geoff Samek by Bill Densmore, at the Journalism That Matters un-conference in Detroit in June 2010 (I also attended).

Focus: “Linking our community”; information categories include Around NH, Letters/Commentary, Meetings Around Town, News Updates; extensive blogroll of civic groups, municipal offices

Started: January 2009 (archive established)

Staff: all volunteer; Maria Moore is editor, main reporter, photographer; Bob Moore for technical support on the web; other contributors are an at-large reporter and an ad sales person

Funding: advertising sales

Site: newhartfordplus.com

From About Us:

The NewHartfordPlus crew members are New Hartford residents who volunteer their time to report for NewHartfordPlus. They do this because they recognize the community-building potential of an independent, locally-run news medium. Crew members’ reports bring New Hartford news and New Hartford happenings to the New Hartford community.

Sample stories: “Town meeting approves date, wording of referendum”; “Debbie Ventre receives ‘Extraordinary Volunteer’ award”; “Full-time custodian position available: New Hartford schools”; “Wanted: Pinewood Derby sponsors

Focus: statehouse and other news and information coverage around state; “Nitty, gritty in-depth news for Vermont”; “Led by journalists, powered by the public”; sections include Business, Opinion, Energy and the Environment, Digger Digest (business and org press release page), Living Standards, State of the State

Started: September 2009

Staff: Anne Galloway is editor, founder; five contributors for reporting, photography, web design. Ms. Galloway is a former Sunday editor of the Rutland Herald and Times Argus.

Funding: nonprofit: donations, sponsorships and grants

Site: vtdigger.org

From About:

Vtdigger.org is a nonprofit, statewide news Web site dedicated to coverage of government, business and community life issues.

Our mission is to enhance democracy through in-depth, interactive journalism.

Our objective is to mine the gaps in Vermont news coverage. We seek to support existing media outlets.

…

At Vtdigger.org, we are creating a virtual, public newsroom that embraces the energy of citizen journalism while abiding by the standards of traditional journalism.

We believe readers want to have a say in what’s covered and how it’s reported. Readers also need reliable information. That’s where the journalists come in. We will vet and verify all information from readers to create comprehensive, accurate reports.

Sample stories: “House to vote on sweeping changes to state government today”; “Economically challenged? Agency looks to eliminate funding for prominent ‘new economy’ programs”; “Keep Local Farms lands two contracts”; “Bill divorces land values from snowmobile trails”

Media mention: “How a layoff spawned a nonprofit site in less than a year” Nieman Lab story

Focus: the “Ithaca Indy” independent community news outlet serving Ithaca, in upstate New York; information categories include City, Life, Crime, Business, Sports, Opinion, Resources

Started: January 2010

Staff: founded by Ed Sutherland, a 20-year journalist; request for contributors

Site: ithacaindy.com

From About:

The goal is to bring news coverage closer to the citizens through numerous avenues, including Twitter and Facebook. Although we embrace modern technology, we remain steadfast in publishing quality journalism, following traditional practices. This is not a blog, where commentary mixes with fact. Nor is it an amateurish enterprise. We hold ourselves to the highest standards and hope our readers will keep us on our toes. Opinion is limited to the opinion pages.

Sample stories: “Ithaca Police Make Check Forgery Arrest”; “Ithaca College Names Park School Dean”; “‘Shock Doctrine’ Author to Visit Ithaca”; “Ithaca Elementary School Among Food SafetyViolators”; “Airport Receives $336k FAA Grant”

Focus: regional online news magazine about Rocky Mountain news, issues, politics, culture; coverage area includes Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, other Western interior locations; community blogs, news roundups from national outlets, original and contributed content

Started: 2005

Staff: about 20, including publisher, editor-in-chief, contributing writers; news partners with other outlets such as DailyYonder, Crosscut, Flathead Beacon

Funding: advertising, conferences; business is New West Publishing LLC

Site: newwest.net

From About Us:

New West.Net is a nationally-award-winning, online network covering and connecting the fastest-growing region in the country with a refreshing mix of daily news, original reportage, commentary, photography, video, music and conversation. NewWest.Net includes a regional Front Page, and local sites in eight communities around the region…

Sample posts: “Western pols quick to denounce passage of health care bill”; “Conservation icon Stewart Udall dies”; “In the mountains, is modern design the right style?”; “Strategy offers hope in beetle battle”

Focus: hyperlocal information for 30 neighborhoods in the northeast corner of Philadelphia

Started: November 2008

Staff: founded by Shannon McDonald, while a student at Temple University; contributing writers

You don’t have to be an experienced writer to contribute to the site. We want active, involved residents with a passion for their neighborhood. Are you a block captain? A stay-at-home parent with active kids? Someone who loves to socialize and try new things? Do you like taking photos of things you see in your daily routine? NEast Philly is a place for people to read about and experience the real Northeast Philadelphia.

Business: started online, print magazine planned for spring 2010

Site: neastphilly.com

From About:

NEastPhilly.com is the online home of Northeast Philadelphia. Launched in November 2008, NEastPhilly is maintained by a collection of local residents who live and breathe Northeast Philadelphia. The site offers daily news, analysis, multimedia, columns and commentary on everything that interests the proud, working-class neighborhoods of The NEast. NEastPhilly.com is the only place for daily news exclusively about the Northeast.

Sample posts: “News briefs from the Lawn Crest Community Association”; “Contractor dies near Frankford workspace”; “Real NEastate: Selling to another Seller” (a Q&A about selling a home in the neighborhood); “”Diamonds stolen from Franklin Mills Mall” a linked report to the Philadelphia Inquirer; “Man killed by train identified”

Focus: “Covering Louisville neighborhoods”; blog started as an observation on downtown development, has grown to cover community news in several city neighborhoods. Original, contributed and curated content shape editorial. Site features: See.Click.Fix and map of blog posts by neighborhood

Started: 2006

Staff:  edited by Brendan Klayko

Business: advertisement funding

Site: brokensidewalk.com

From Home page:

Here, we report on and discuss neighborhood news in Louisville, Kentucky. Any given day, we might be talking about real estate development, transportation, architecture, urbanism, or the nitty gritty of urban life. Please join in the conversation, or learn more about Broken Sidewalk and the stories we cover here. If you like what you see, consider subscribing to our RSS Feed (it’s easy). Thanks for stopping by.

From About:

Broken Sidewalk (BS) is dedicated to the urban realm of the River City, from its neighborhoods to its transportation trends, from real estate happenings to the latest political struggle.  The blog was founded in 2006 as a small site documenting the development of downtown Louisville.  Since then, brokensidewalk.com has grown to cover the goings on of the greater metropolitan region.  We are dedicated to reporting the latest real-estate deal, the most up-to-date project announcements, transportation trends, and all the neighborhood news related to living in our fine city.  We follow the ongoing construction progress of exciting development projects and slip in a little of the latest rumor about the future of the city.

…

BS is more than a news source; its a dialogue.  What makes brokensidewalk.com work is the input from our community of users.  This site has been designed to encourage as much interaction as possible.  Each post carries your comments and opinion polls track the pulse of the latest hot topics.  Our community also helps run the site.

Sample posts: “Livable Louisville Forum Set for March 30″; “Demo Watch: Spalding Gym Half Way Gone”; “Wednesday News Roundup” (a collection of links to city news from other news outlets); “Creation Gardens Moving Forward on East Market Street”

Focus: local and community news hub for Louisville; original and aggregated content; current events, local topics of discussion, forums, curated content; 29 forum topics, 14 news and information categories, mostly arts and leisure, calendar events, human interest, opinion; member blogs section

Started: 2003, as community BBS system

Staff: 8 full-time, one part-time and 12 contractors; solicits user-generated content

Funding: owned by Metromojo LLC, a company specializing in online information platforms. Louisville Mojo is the most popular website in Kentucky, according to Nielsen engagement rankings cited by Louisville Mojo officials. The site served more than 25 million page views to over 155,000 unique visitors in January 2010; average time on site was over 25 minutes, MetroMojo LLC chief technology officer Chuck Burke said.

Site: louisvillemojo.com

From About (Metromojo):

We are a company with roots in the electronic bulletin board (BBS) days of the Internet. Our founders were developing powerful technology applications prior to the existence of the WWW. Skip forward a decade….2003. Louisville Mojo was launched as a portfolio piece and its wild growth shocked us all. In early 2004, we realized that the traction of our first online community represented a more dramatic and global change in how media is produced and consumed. Today, Louisville Mojo serves a significant audience. In the course of managing and monetizing our own local online community, we have contributed to the development of a powerful niche within the social media industry: local online community.

The company has received initial funding from  Lunsford Capital and  Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation.

Mr. Burke:

98% of what you see [on Louisville Mojo]… is produced and managed by our editorial team, run by Rick Redding, a long-time journalist here in Louisville, Kentucky, who cut his teeth in publications such as Business First and the Courier Journal.

If you venture beyond the homepage into our “channels” you will begin to find more user generated content.  In addition to this, we have forums, photo galleries, classifieds, etc.

We are a commercial operation, the majority of our revenues comes from advertising with a small percentage of it coming from “supporting member” accounts, which offer members a few additional features on the web site.

Sample posts, information: “The Bible, sex-ed and Frankfort priorities” (an opinion piece by staff writer); “What are the BonAire/Highgate neighborhood groups doing now?”; “LMPD’s Crystal Marlow will plead the fifth”; “Paul fires back in senate race”; “UPDATE: Restaurant to be baby friendly…Mojo makes a difference”; “Trashy novels, Sports Illustrated and your kids”

Focus: “Community News. Evolved.”; neighborhood news for Mt. Greenwood, Beverly and Morgan Park; news, opinion, calendar, forums, chat rooms

Started: March 2007

Staff: Michael Fielding, editor, journalism degree and background; Steve Delmont, publisher, formerly in print publishing; solicitation for contributed content and blogs

Funding: advertising; site is associated with Romeii LLC, of Wisconsin

Site: southwestobserver.com

From About:

The Observer is a new community newspaper without the paper. Every day we’ll post news items pertinent to you and your community.And every day we’ll ask you to participate. Got a gripe? Air it in the forums. Planning a block party? Start a blog and keep everyone up to date. Register with us, and you can comment on the stories we post, or you can comment on the posts of your neighbors.

Sample stories: “Keller to stay put, Mt. Greenwood school to expand”; “Community alert for attempted kidnapping”; “Obama’s bookstore book signing this Saturday”; “Keller meeting for parents only”

Focus: “Everybody has a hand in thinking”; a neighborhood blog — community events coverage, crime updates

Started: June 2008

Staff: founded and edited by resident Laura Adams; contributor solicitation

Funding: no apparent traditional funding (advertising, grants)

Site: villagethinker.wordpress.com

From About:

The Village Thinker is a community news resource. The Village Thinker is the new media.  It is an Internet news source, but it isn’t an electronic newspaper. Yet.

Print is dead, I went to the funeral almost 10 years ago.  It was nice, CNN sent a beautiful wreath.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t considered news.  Most likely because it coincided with the christening of the Internet as the New Media.

The Village Thinker exists because we have no unfiltered crime and gang-related news in our community, and people are tired of reading propaganda that is sanitized for our protection.   Or for the protection of the people who need to cover up what they did wrong.  We are tired of being kept in the dark.

The Village Thinker is underground news, because even a small town needs an underground media outlet.

Sample posts: “Second bank robbery this month”; “Crimewatch committed to continuing the struggle”; “IFPTI receives substantial funding in 2011 Federal budget”; “Ann J. Kellogg students Stomp for Peace”