Chicago News Co-op to woo paying readers while hunting more foundation support

The Chicago News Cooperative will soon test the theory that readers are willing to pay for news even as the organization scrambles to line up another year of foundation grants to finance the experiment.

The CNC plans to launch a series of niche online news sites in the next six months, including one focused on Chicago politics, to generate fees, co-founder and Editor Jim O'Shea says. Still, the upstart organization is seeking money from a George Soros-backed foundation and others to stay afloat. The non-profit, which rolled out coverage about a year ago, wants to become self-sufficient by 2015, but may only have until spring 2012 to find out whether a plan to charge $2 weekly member fees succeeds or flops. Chicagoans and national media observers alike are watching the new business model in an evolving landscape.