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The nonprofit Chicago News Cooperative is suspending publication effective Feb. 26, it announced today.

“Unlike similar start-up efforts like the Texas Tribune in Austin, the Bay Citizen in San Francisco and ProPublica in New York, we never recruited the kind of seven figure donations from people of means concerned about the declining quality of news coverage around the country,” editor and CEO James O’Shea wrote.

The financial issues were “too complex to discuss in any detail in a note like this,” he said. But the Chicago Reader reported Friday that CNC asked the New York Times, to which it contributed content, for the funding it would need to continue and was turned down.

O’Shea’s post, published today, did not reference the Reader, but said that “Early stories and twitter posts on our problems were inaccurate. The reporting was sloppy and simply reinforced in my mind the need for solidly reported, well-edited journalism, the kind that professional CNC journalists have been doing on our website and in the New York Times since November, 2009.”

The site counts 30 staffers among its ranks, the majority of them involved in newsgathering or journalism.

The nonprofit will be “examining our potential to see if we can identify an alternative path” in the next few weeks.

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Gamification has been the buzzword in industries from education to health and wellness to even recruitment, and there are some who suggest that gamification has already jumped the shark, but until today we hadn’t thought of it as a PR tool.

Yet according to PR Daily, at least two companies (NASA and a drug maker) are using games to promote their brands. (Pharmville, anyone?)

NASA’s launched Space Race Blastoff on Facebook, a quiz game that is meant to make people realize that the millions of dollars NASA spends on space has tangible benefits on earth (see Velcro, Tang, and memory foam mattresses).

And drug company Boehringer Ingelheim is launching a game in April that shows how much R&D goes into making a drug, in hopes that consumers will then understand why their Lipitor (for example) is so expensive.

“If you have to face the same challenge an organization does, or you can produce the same benefits, your eyes can be opened to something a company or industry has been trying to tell you for years,” writes Shel Holtz. “The game can create the ‘aha’ moment that institutional advertising, press releases, and blog posts that both traditional and digital media failed to deliver.”

Just another tool in your marketing and PR toolbox. Have you tried “gamifying” your company’s products? We’d love to see more examples of this trend, so send ‘em in.

Among the other topics covered in this wide-ranging interview with the Mediaite founder, Dan Abrams told Ad Age today that he’s launching a food site “in the next few months.”

The site will use one in-house editor but Abrams Media will be hiring “a couple more” people to help run the site.

That, plus one or two more launches later in 2012, mean a few gigs for journalists/bloggers/what have you. And Abrams also told Ad Age that the company is “solidly profitable,” which is always a good sign on the Internet.

“When I look at stations like national Fox News — fair and balanced — the message they promote is violence and hate, not understanding. MSNBC, they make fun of, or bash, without bringing solutions to the table. Right now, our country is in decline, and our media has absolutely failed our country,” says 24-year-old journalism grad Mnar A. Muhawesh, whose MintPress news site has just launched in Minnesota.

MintPress may be based in Minnesota, but it’s got an international focus, covering social issues worldwide.

“We want to ask more questions about policies, social issues, how we can rebuild this country,” Muhawesh told David Brauer. “We’re not bashing the system, we’re covering issues — what’s worked and what hasn’t worked.”

Muhawesh’s site already has a staff of seven (six full-timers), a three-year plan for profitability, and unnamed investors. She plans to hire up to eight more staffers, especially ones who have “passion, [those] who went into journalism to make a difference. These are the people we call back.”

Check out the site at http://mintpress.net to learn more.

Only a month after laying off editorial staffers at seven Metromix sites across the country to become “Metromix Express,” the news is coming that Gannett is also scaling back its flagship Metromix site serving New York.

The editor, Kirk Miller, broke the news to his writers yesterday. Capital New York called the move a “shuttering” as Miller’s farewell memo said that Metromix New York was “no more,” but a Gannett spokesperson says that the company is “evaluating all of our options” for the future of the site.

However, “Some Metromix employees in editorial, advertising sales, administration and business operations” were laid off, the spokesperson said.

We assume that this means that Metromix NY is also becoming a “Metromix Express,” which means it will feature content aggregated from elsewhere.

No word on how this affects Gannett’s 18 other Metromix sites, or the 39 that are owned by the Chicago Tribune.

The nonprofit online Texas Tribune wanted to raise $9 million and break even by 2013.

But, as Adweek points out, a year shy of that goal, the news outlet has raised $11 million and is “approaching profitability.”

“We couldn’t have imagined it would be this good,” says TT’s editor-in-chief Evan Smith.

Meanwhile, traffic is up, the money is rolling in (last year’s “Festival of Ideas” conference netted $400,000), and the New York Times is a client. The Tribune projects hitting profitability this year on $4.5 million in revenue.

The Texas Tribune keeps 31 staffers (16 writers) out of the poorhouse. This is up from the last time we checked in on them when the site employed 27 people.

In the following Media Beat clip, mediabistro interviews Smith on the Tribune’s business model:

F+W Media, a media company serving markets like antiques, crafts, writing and horticulture, has purchased World Tea Media for an undisclosed sum, Folio reports.

World Tea Media’s biggest asset is the World Tea Expo, but also runs the North American Tea Championship and a news site called WorldTeaNews.com, which has three editors listed on its masthead and 19 (freelance) contributors. Existing staff will remain intact, Folio says.

Mashable brings up an interesting (and somewhat horrifying) thought: perhaps Facebook Timeline is the new resume.

Yeah. Not that LinkedIn is going anywhere, but employers have been checking Facebook profiles to get the skinny on candidates for years. Timeline does two things: it makes it easier for those old posts of yours to surface, and since it makes it easier to make a really nice-looking profile page, those who don’t may be penalized.

Here’s what Mashable contributor Gerrit Hall says: “Until now, the Facebook profile has provided a current slice of a user’s life. If you want to get into the nitty-gritty details or look a week, month, or year into the past, it takes some searching and clicking. With Timeline, employers can learn more about users by searching specific time frames and seeing how the details mesh together.

“Ultimately, Facebook is going to become the go-to site for more curious employers and clients. Personalized and manicured Timelines are simply going to be more attractive.”

Smart tips: double-check your privacy settings, make sure that embarrassing stuff from way back in 2005 is truly hidden, not just hard to find, and highlight your best stuff.

Courtesy of AG Beat, here are some cool Facebook timelines that put a jobseeker’s best professional face forward.

Read more

Reuters is moving its online newsroom from Toronto to Bangalore, taking with it 18 of 23 jobs.

The Toronto Star reports that the cuts represent a third of Reuters’ editorial operations in Toronto.

Reuters says it has increased the number of Reuters.com staff over the last eight months, but “as part of restructuring of our production staff, we’re moving some roles in our global online newsroom from Toronto to Asia. The online visuals desk remains in Toronto,” the company said in a statement.

Looks like the move has already begun, if this post is any indication.

The Atlantic has launched a new channel, The Atlantic Health, which promises a “broad approach” that will “bring[...] you vital news and analysis that matters to your health and wellbeing.”

The channel will be edited by Nicholas Jackson, formerly a writer in the tech channel.

The channel promises to be lively, and Jackson and the site’s writers will have their work cut out for them. In Jackson’s introductory post, the commenters are already coming out to play. There are the people who think the reporting is already not rigorous enough (“I hope this column is intended to add to the debate rather than parrot the usual undigested tripe”) and then those who believe mainstream medicine is out to get them (“I myself, for example, have made the decision after have several major problems with the quality of health care, to begin the process of being my own doctor”).

Good luck, Atlantic! You stepped into probably the most controversial topic after politics!