Pierre Omidyar is the latest Bay Area kajillionaire to jump into the save-the-news-business fray. According to a note posted on the site of his new business, Peer News, the eBay founder is creating a Honolulu-based "local news service" that will "produce original, in-depth reporting and analysis of local issues in Hawaii."

The note offers few details, other than to say it will be online-only (this is 2009, after all, the note says), that it will focus on "public affairs and civic matters that impact communities across Hawaii," and that it will launch in "early 2010."

"The new venture intends to demonstrate that a digitally native, technologically fluent web organization can profitably serve targeted readers who want sophisticated journalism focused on local civic affairs," writes Howard Weaver on his Etaoin Shrdlu blog. Weaver is former VP for News at The McClatchy Co., who has advised Omidyar and his partner, former eBay VP Randy Ching, on the venture.

According to Dan Gillmor, with whom Omidyar also consulted, the service will combine professional journalists and citizen journalists in "a commercial model that hasn't been tried yet."

And if Weaver's comments are any indicator, the project is also likely to eventually become financially sustainable. Says Weaver: "I think tomorrow's best local public service journalism (like today's) is most likely to come from organizations built on success in the marketplace. I applaud any effort to create the journalism democracy needs... but my heart and my guts both tell me that journalism that meets real needs can pay its own way."

In the meantime, if you want to move to Hawaii, they're currently looking for an editor.

Photo: Joi Ito (Creative Commons License)