The Batavian...a new alternative?

I found this pretty cool and I think you will too...

Gatehouse Media has launched a website in a market where it doesn't publish a print newspaper - Batavia, NY. It's called The Batavian.

While Gatehouse does not publish a print product in Batavia, a separate family-owned company does. Here's the catch - that paper, The Daily News, has no content on its website. So, Gatehouse is looking - as one article put it - "to launch an innovative news and community site that will eat the lunch of an incumbent newspaper that has ignored the web."

Here's an article about The Batavian from The Epoch Times.

So what do you think? Is there a market for this type of project? One would think so due to the growing popularity of online news. But, without a print counterpart? Will it produce enough traffic to encourage companies to purchase advertising and, in turn, survive financially? Have you heard of any other projects similar to this? Please share your thoughts on this novel (in my opinion) idea...