How are community news sites faring?

I'm working on a blog for OJR that tries to assess the financial health of some of the community news startups. So far, I'm finding some encouraging responses -- though it's early.

One of them is from a respected new-media pioneer, Jonathan Weber, who runs the New West Web site. It's an interesting hybrid in that it tries to cover issues that are of special interest to the West -- environmental, developmental, political, etc. But in classic entrepreneurial fashion, New West also makes money by hosting conferences on these issues and by a small indoor advertising business on the side.

What struck me in Weber's e-mail response to me is that he sees some encouraging signs in retail merchants' acceptance of Internet advertising. In what may be the ultimate "silver lining" sighting, he also said even the recession may be helping. "This kind of dislocation forces people to revisit how they are spending money, and rethink their marketing strategies overall, and that is actually very good for us," he told me in an e-mail.

I'm still gathering string for this and hope to post on OJR by Thursday.