Since its launch in 2004, Voice of San Diego has been heralded as one of the great success stories in online, non-profit journalism. But this past December, the unexpected layoffs of popular reporters Emily Alpert and Adrian Florido and photographer Sam Hodgson due to financial problems at VoSD gave media watchers a shock. And it seems to have led to the realization at VoSD that the site’s model of fundraising is no longer working.

The San Diego Reader spoke with VoSD’s Scott Lewis about a massive shift that is currently underway at the non-profit .

“I’ll be frank,” Lewis says, “we’ve survived and thrived based on spontaneous acts of heroism in the past, and now we’re turning that into a more professional business model of prosperity and actual metrics and goals.”

He leans forward and relaxes visibly as the conversation moves on from the layoffs to the future of the organization. Though he’s still tight-lipped about details, he tells me that the future they’re trying to build “isn’t about readership, it’s about membership.”

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After many months of waiting, the Los Angeles Times was able to secure visa approval into Syria for reporter Alexandra Zavis. She was only allowed in for ten days; could not bring in any satellite equipment or laptops; and was accompanied everywhere by minders.

Zavis has now safely returned to Lebanon. As she tells colleague Emily Alpert, there were other obstacles to being able to cover an already tenuous and very dangerous corner of the world:

“Many people were afraid to be seen talking to us in case they would be questioned later. Conversations in shops and restaurants were often short and furtive. Meetings with opposition activists turned into cloak-and-dagger affairs. We would start out in one taxi, switch to another. An intermediary would meet us at a busy traffic circle. No eye contact would be made. We would then follow the person down winding alleys, keeping several paces behind so that it would not look like we were together.”

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Looks like former Voice of San Diego reporter Emily Alpert has landed on her feet. Alpert was one of three VoSD journos laid off shortly before the new year due to fundraising shortages at the journalistic nonprofit. According to her Twitter account, Alpert has since moved north to join the LA Times WorldNow blogging team. She comes to LA with a great reputation in the San Diego media world.

Although many things are going well for website Voice of San Diego, the organization still relies in part on grants from national foundations. Because the prognosis for that type of funding is not good, it has decided it must pare down its 2012 operating budget by $200,000.

As a result, the site announced today that it is letting go of neighborhood reporter Adrian Florido, education reporter Emily Alpert, photo editor Sam Hodgson and one (unnamed) other employee. CEO Scott Lewis and editor Andrew Donohue conclude their post with a no-nonsense assessment of the impact of today’s moves:

We’re not going to give you the hackneyed journalism line that we’ll “do more with less.” We are, however, taking this as an opportunity to go back to our roots and focus on impact. We’ll use all we’ve learned over the past seven years of VOSD to build a thriving and sustainable organization.

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