With 27 fewer staff members in the News & Observer newsroom after an 11 percent staff cut by its publisher in March, it doesn’t seem likely the publication’s coverage is in a period of expansion. In light of the layoffs, as well as buyouts and attrition, the paper has worked with the staff of the Charlotte Observer to cover stories statewide.

News & Observer publisher Orage Quarles III said in a March 16 Charlotte Observer article this cooperation is in the interest of efficiency and the push toward a “narrower newspaper” to save costs.

But a “narrower” newspaper with broader state coverage doesn’t have the space or staff to delve into neighborhood happenings and provide detailed coverage of city life.

It was for this reason C. Duncan Pardo founded Raleigh Public Record, a non-profit Web site devoted to covering Raleigh’s neighborhoods.

As newspapers across the country cut staff and production cost, this type of hyperlocal journalism is making its way onto the Web.

Pardo,editor of the Record, said he wanted to “fill the gaps” in coverage from other publications such as the N & O and the Independent Weekly rather than compete with them.

“[The N & O] sees themselves as a statewide paper and they do that job really well, such as its mental health series, but local coverage has suffered,” Pardo said.

His staff of a dozen volunteers are working to create a “sustainable news organization” for the city of Raleigh as part of a “non-profit city desk.”

“It’s an experiment, but it’s an experiment I’m doing everything I can to make succeed,” Pardo said. “There has been a lot of community interest.”

And Pardo has paid for this experiment out of pocket. He said the costs have been “manageable,” but in order to expand the site, he’ll need funding. However, if newspapers are suffering due to lacking advertisement sales, he’ll have to be creative.

He said is exploring the option of gaining nonprofit status, as well as seeking advertisers for the site. Raleigh Public Record will hold its first fundraiser Thursday night.

“That’s the big challenge facing us — we’ve got this model started — how do we turn this from an all volunteer thing into something where we can pay to have good journalism done about Raleigh,” he said. “Journalism is expensive — it’s extremely expensive. You have to be able to pay reporters a decent salary.”

For now, Pardo and his staff work full-time jobs and maintain the Record on the side.

Similarly, volunteer contributors generate content for New Raleigh, a news blog launched in 2007 that dedicates its coverage to Raleigh.

Jedidiah Gant, downtown editor for the site, works as an architect full time and as a blogger in his free time. He calls his role at New Raleigh “a labor of love” and not one for profit, which he said holds true for the rest of its small staff.

He said the site began with a group of five to six contributors and has fluctuated ever since, holding steady at 15 to 20 contributors as of late.

According to Gant, publisher David Millsaps started New Raleigh out of his frustration with local news coverage of teardowns and development in the city. He wanted to provide an opposing view to what existing news organizations reported.

The site has since evolved, and now covers the arts, nightlife, restaurants, and other happenings in Raleigh.

And the “labor of love” has survived thus far with little adverting and few sponsorships.

“We try to make enough off of ads to keep the site up,” Gant said. “We do trade-outs sometimes with local organizations we sponsor. We have had advertisements. If the site’s going to go forward and become a money maker [we would have to expand advertising], but we are not in it for the money. It’s more about making the city better and covering things we don’t think bigger media outlets are covering. To certain degree, we don’t even talk about [finances].”

But the question of whether or not to expand is pressing for news blogs nationwide, as well as how to go forward in light of the country’s — and industry’s — economic state.

The State of News Media 2009 report, released by the PEW Project for Excellence in Journalism, addresses this.

“Among new alternative news outlets, the economic model looks no more promising. For all the experiments with new ways of reporting, producing, disseminating and sharing news content, most of the money to support them has come either from philanthropy or private individuals,” the report reads.

Pardo said there are news blog success stories, such as that of one in Minneapolis, Minn., called Minn Post, which “does a statewide journalism effort in a nonprofit model.”

It seems finding a way to join the ranks of Minn Post will be for news blogs as Pardo described Raleigh Public Record — “an experiment.”