The San Diego News Network (SDNN.com) launched to much fanfare last week — at least among local Twitterati, who Tweeted up a storm about the debut of the built-from-scratch, web-only news operation. The Twitter-buzz is completely justified, given the number of juicy story lines:

• In the face of a dying newspaper industry, an entrepreneurial husband-and-wife team decide to bankroll the launch of an upstart online news operation. Neil Senturia and wife Barbara Bry, SDNN.com CEO and associate publisher respectively, reportedly sank $1 million into the venture.
• They partner with Ron James, SDNN.com publisher, who returns to compete directly against his former employer, SignOnSanDiego.com, the online arm of the financially crippled and recently sold San Diego Union-Tribune, which unceremoniously let James and other talented SOSD.com execs go last summer.
• Lurking in the background is another local online news operation, not to be overlooked: the critically acclaimed VoiceofSanDiego.org. (I’ll also throw in the NCTimes.com, which operates in North County San Diego, and SDDT.com, the online outlet for the San Diego Daily Transcript, a downtown legal publication).

Given this juicy set up, I decided to look at several audience measurement services to see just how far SDNN.com has to go to eclipse its online competitors. The answer: quite far.

Here’s a graph from Alexa.com showing SignOnSanDiego.com enjoying a sizable lead over NCTimes.com, VoiceofSanDiego.org, and, of course, SDNN.com, which just shows up as small blip having just launched. The numbers reflect daily reach, or percent of global internet users. I looked at Compete.com, Quantcast and Alexa.com, and found the latter to be most accurate.

Is the intense competition and Everest-like climb to the top news to SDNN.com? Not likely. They know the landscape and must feel confident in James ability to replicate his success at SignOnSanDiego.com — and before that Time Warner Road Runner and San Diego Magazine. James, a new media wizard, has partnered with several local news organizations, as well as brought in an all-star cast of former local print reporters, including former U-Ters David Elliott, Arthur Salm, Maria Hunt, and Ruth McKinnie Braun to name a few.

It’ll be interesting to watch things play out. I’m guessing SDNN.com, operating a much lower overhead, probably doesn’t need to come close to matching SignOnSanDiego.com’s audience to turn a profit, but you know they’ll be trying. Here’s wishing good luck to the SDNN.com crew, as well as to Mark Davis and his staff over at SignOnSanDiego.com. As Davis recently Tweeted me: “The good news for the audience is that competition can only make everyone better.”

Amen.

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