News Inkubator: a pitch for creating the future of localized news in Philadelphia

Funny thing is that like many of you whom we cover, Technically Philly is a startup.
We launched this great experiment in online targeted news in February. Despite being very pleased with our growth — 15,000 page views last month, more than 800 RSS subscribers and something of a reputation for original reporting, not too bad considering our work here is only part-time — we’ve continually had to focus on developing sustainability through revenue, like many of you, and not simply pushing to better connect with our editorial product.
Others in the news and community reporting realm in Philadelphia are having the same problem, most not even discussing the possibility of creating that profitable sustainability.
So, early last month, we introduced News Inkubator, a business services hub and collaborative newsroom for niche news sites in Philadelphia.

It is our pitch for developing the next generation of local coverage for Philadelphia: a network of highly-focused news sites, some topically based and others neighborhood tied, that works together to cut costs, generate revenue on their niche and, together, cover every corner of the city.
News Inkubator was at first directed at the well-known Knight News Challenge. While quite a bit of back story remains, earlier this month, we’ve been told Knight isn’t interested in funding News Ink.
But that doesn’t mean we’re abandoning the idea.
Technically Philly was always meant to be the flagship experiment for this network. We’ll continue to build this idea slowly on our own, but we want to invite criticism, collaboration and other brainstorming.
Additionally, if you have interest in becoming a possible partner, in talking about sharing resources and costs, we’re seeing this as an opportunity to invite a dialogue. Please don’t hesitate to contact us.
You can read some more about it here.
So give the site supplement and our original Knight application, and tell us what you think. Something tells us that in 2010, you’ll hear more about creating more localized Web-based news for Philadelphia.