It aint easy, but ex-newspaper reporters keep trying to do their own thing. The latest is online The Rocky Mountain Independent in Denver which snagged many of its reporters from INDenver Times, another Web-only property that’s still around but not feeling too healthy.

The latter had set a goal to sign up 50,000 paying subscribers but only landed about 3,000, according to PaidContent.

The Rocky Mountain Independent will focus only on “original” content, no aggregating stories as in most post-print plays. The business model is to get subscribers to pay $4 a month. That includes premium content on the site as well as the opportunity “to chat with RMI’s staff about the news of the day,” according to an announcement on the Web site.

While spirits are still high in Denver, over in Seattle, the Seattle Post Globe – a site led by reporters from the old Seattle P-I – says it only has money “for another three weeks.” The site, which launched in April, has raised $12,000 from donations and ads – not enough to pay its freelancers the $1,000/week it promised. The site’s aim was to pay full time reporters $3,500 a month.