Chicago News Cooperative to suspend operations

[February 21, 2012]  CHICAGO (AP) -- The editor of a Chicago-based news cooperative that has provided content to the New York Times over the last 2 1/2 years says it will suspend operations.

Chicago News Cooperative editor and CEO Jim O'Shea said Monday that the organization would stop contributing to the New York Times' Midwest pages and suspend its website starting Sunday. O'Shea said in an email that the cooperative would reassess its operation and determine if "there is a more sustainable path to the future."

The cooperative started in November 2009 with the Times paying it an undisclosed amount to provide two pages of local stories on Fridays and Sundays.

O'Shea said the cooperative could not raise the million-dollar donations it needed to continue. He called the cooperative an experiment in financing accountability journalism.

[Associated Press]

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