Another staff shuffle at the Colorado Independent

UPDATED JUNE 30, 2009

The Colorado Independent underwent their third major staff change in the past seven months Wednesday, as managing editor Wendy Norris is leaving to take a news fellowship.

John Tomasic, who joined the Independent earlier this year, will take over July 1 as interim managing editor for Norris, who accepted a news entrepreneur fellowship with the Knight Digital Media Center to examine sustainable online news.

Norris was the only remaining founding member of the progressive news site, which was launched in 2006 as Colorado Confidential. Her departure leaves the Independent with a staff of three: Tomasic, Ernest Luning, and David O. Williams.

The Independent has been hemorrhaging staffers since last November, when six staff writers were laid off. Cara DeGette, the former editor of the site, left last January to become managing editor of Law Week Colorado.

By coincidence, Norris' departure comes just days after another progressive news site, the Huffington Post, announced it would open a Denver-centric site in late summer/early fall.

*CORRECTIONS: An earlier version of this article stated, in error, that Tomasic joined the Colorado Independent last year. The article also wrongly insinuated that Norris would leave for California to take the fellowship: she will remain in Colorado. Also, the article stated in error that Norris' announcement came on Tuesday; it came on Wednesday.