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.

Helping in that regard is one very committed reader, who has offered to make a matching $15,000 donation as part of VOSD’s current year-end fundraising drive.