The future looks bright for San Diegos latest local news startup, the San Diego News Network. The sites founder, local tech entrepeneur Neil Baby Senturia, launched SDNN in March, and had raised about $707K in funding, of a $2 million goal, from a total of 12 investors, according to an SEC filing from July. In yesterdays update on the story, paidContent reported that Senturia and the sites president, Chris Jennewein have nearly hit the $2 million mark.
The site uses a “regional aggregation strategy”–akin to a blogging model, and has a budget of about $1 million. It employs 19 full timers (some former Union-Tribune staffers), is aided by 23 freelancers and 12 bloggers, and keeps payroll costs down by paying reporters a cut of the ad revenue generated by their stories. Senturia told paidContent he plans to grow into a national network of local sites.
Back in June, Forbes broke a story on the changing landscape of the citys local news scene. Until recently, San Diego was a one-newspaper town, but as the Union-Tribune cratered, creative news ventures like SDNN arrived on the scene. The site competes with SDUT (now owned by PE shop Platinum Equity), and the non-profit news startup Voice of San Diego.