Costa Mesa-based Orange County Local News Network has ceased operations after four months.
The online news website, which wrote and aggregated news from other newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and its local weeklies, said it was shutting down operations Monday.
In an e-mail to staff, Chris Jennewein, president of San Diego-based parent U.S. Local News Network, said “the Orange County Local News Network has been forced to cease operations effective immediately.”
The news startup partnered in January with the Los Angeles Times Media Group, part of Chicago-based Tribune Co., to provide news and ads.
Orange County Local News staffers worked out of the Times’ office in Costa Mesa.
The website employed four full-time workers and a group of freelancers.
The Web site debuted in February. It sought to be the source for breaking and local news, sports, events, lifestyle and entertainment in Orange County.
It’s unclear why the OC news Web site shut down.
U.S. Local News runs two other Web sites including San Diego News Network and Southwest Riverside News Network.
Jennewein ran SignOnSanDiego, San Diego newspaper’s website, before becoming the head of the U.S. Local News Network in 2008.
U.S. Local News Network—which has raised $3 million, including $1 million in January—planned to roll out 40 sites in cities across the U.S. in the next two years.
