To loyal readers of the Sentinel site and consistent users of our community calendar:

The Sentinel site is scheduled to lock-down this coming August 3. Staff content production ceased earlier this month but the site continues to be actively used by the community. However, after some effort on my part, I have been unable find a sustainable business model or partnership that would allow continued service.

Last month The Sentinel and the Oregon News Incubator ceased their publishing and office share arrangement. The partnership produced a significant amount of coverage throughout the spring. However, by June it was clear that taking on news assignments was more demanding for ONI members than the rewards yielded by relatively free workspace in North Portland. The ONI continues to meet and conduct its work of supporting freelancer reporters. I wish them well.

Despite the fact that no partnership or staff reporting has occurred recently, some 8,000 users still traffic and post to this site. I believe this proves that both the publication and the online model we created here turned out to be a useful resource to the community.

After August 3, the site and it’s data will continue to be publicly available through search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. However, all dynamic features will cease to publish. No new comments, events, or other new material may be added after July 31.

The site’s files will be transfered to the non-profit group North Portland Community Works. The NPCW will maintain the files so that they can still be accessible through the web. A set of the Sentinel’s paper editions will be donated to the City of Portland's archives and another set will go to the St Johns Heritage Society.

The Sentinel, North Portland Community Works and the North Portland Business Association are currently working with Portland Media Lab to create a new social media portal that will replace this site on August 3. The North Portland Neighborhood Network, is funded by a grant from the Lester Viles Fund. It is designed to be a customizable social media portal that will stream RSS feeds from North Portland community groups into a clearing house for local information. In the future, in bound traffic headed for www.portlandsentinel.com will be redirected to the new North Portland network site.

Some functionalities of the site such as the community calendar may continue to function under the new site.

I’ve posted some personal thoughts about the Sentinel on my newly launched blog (sigh...yes, yet another blog). But in this posting I will simply say that the newspaper and blog’s relationship to the neighborhood has been a remarkably rewarding adventure. While the publication did make a little money over time, and our team did receive some recognition from our professional peers, the true rewards came from working on local stories that had meaningful impact. Most of all, it was a privilege to have had opportunity to work with so many talented and intelligent staff members, interns and volunteers. Their energy and enthusiasm breathed a tireless life-force into everything that was we did together.

To all those who made it possible and to those who found it useful, engaging or distracting- thank you.

I'll still see you in the neighborhood
Cornelius Swart