It took no time at all for online journalism pioneer Chris Jennewein to land a new gig. He’s become president of San Diego News Network, one of the growing number of standalone online news / journalism sites in the U.S. considered to be a serious effort and a strong candidate for survival. This appointment certainly enhances SDNN, although there’s still of course no guarantee that it’ll be around six months or a year from now, much less in five years.

            SDNN says it’s “bringing life back into San Diego news.” It’s publishing in a city where the major local daily, the San Diego Union-Tribune, also has a very robust Web site, SignOnSanDiego.com, which was led by Jennewein for seven years (until about a year ago). But the U-T has new ownership and has suffered massive layoffs; there was some speculation that the newspaper was purchased for the value of — or even less than the value of — the land its buildings sat on. That would tie accurately into the comment in February by newspaper broker Owen Van Essen that while some newspaper enterprises in the U.S. have lost 25 or even 50 percent of their value, “others have lost all of their value.”

            In addition to San Diego News Network, the city also is home to VoiceOfSanDiego, another seemingly strong, independent non-profit news site.

            Whether SDNN is a viable career for Jennewein or anyone else remains to be seen — but we wish them all well.

            And, oh yes: Chris, we notice SDNN includes tabs for “coupons / restaurants /shopping / whatever,” but no classifieds. We know Craigslist and SignOnSanDiego are pretty strong in classifieds in that market (especially since the U-T expanded its free classifieds a few years back), and you probably know that even better than we do. But if you need help with classifieds or anything else, give us a holler. It’d be great to work with you again <g>.