AMERICAN REPORTER ENDS RELATIONSHIP WITH NANDO

By: Staff reports Site Still Struggling With Financial Model



One of the Web's first original news sources, The American Reporter, is ending a
three-year relationship with The Nando Times, the news site of McClatchy newspaper
chain.



Editor-in-chief Joe Shea says the site will continue to exist as a journalist-owned
site based in Hollywood, Calif. Some 300 journalists from around the world are
co-owners in the site, which has never made money. At various times, Shea has
considered seeking venture capital or setting up the online publication as a business
or nonprofit organization.



The site will now be hosted by www2.monitor.net, a Northern California ISP that is
also home to The Albion Monitor, a weekly site for independent journalism.



Shea says the Nando partnership prevented The American Reporter from using e-commerce
forms due to technical conflicts. 'As a result, we were foreclosed from some income we
would ordinarily hope to derive from our Web site,' Shea says. 'This move assures us
of the ability to take credit card payments for our news, features, columns and reviews,
and ought to make our financial position more viable.'



Shea says the site has built up $6 million in owner equity over the past five years. He
hopes to leverage that equity and is 'discussing ways to do so with some of the best
Internet-experienced law firms in the country, and hope the kind of revenue stream we
need will grow from that as well as the page sales.' Shea is also seeking grants from
foundations.



Last summer, Nando sales reps said they had difficulty attracting advertisers to the site,
and some writers have expressed frustration with the site's lack of profits. The American
Reporter follows a strict privacy policy which doesn't log user visits or count hits.



Started in 1995, the Reporter has received high marks for quality journalism, but there's
been little advertising.



Related story:



AMERICAN REPORTER FACES SERIOUS FINANCIAL WOES (07/15/99)