By Lookout Staff

March 12 -- Started as an experiment to keep a community that had lost its daily paper informed, Surfsantamonica.com celebrates its fifth anniversary Saturday, making it the city’s oldest source of news.

Launched one year after The Outlook -- which provided local news for 123 years -- shut down, surfsantamonica.com was one of the nation’s first independent local news sites not tied to an existing media outlet.

The idea was to focus the potential of the internet -- which was viewed as a global medium -- on a small geographic area, its founders said.

“While large media outlets virtually ignored Santa Monica, we provided in-depth coverage of the city,” said Jorge Casuso, the site’s editor and one of its founders.

“Other sites reached out across the planet,” said co-founder Iris Oliveras, “but surfsantamonica.com encouraged users to ‘link local’ to find out what was happening in their hometown.”

Capitalizing on the internet -- which reached a rapidly growing number of readers without the overhead of a print medium -- surfsantamonica.com invested in hiring and training reporters to provide objective and professional local news coverage, Casuso said.

“Thanks to the loyal support of our sponsors and readers, we have not only been able to provide breaking news, but our reporters have uncovered exclusive stories and conducted investigations that have helped shape City policy,” Casuso said.

Surfsantamonica.com’s story on the City’s efforts to quietly open a homeless drop-in center sparked a community movement, and its two-part series on who gets into Santa Monica’s senior housing exposed how the system favored well-organized residents from outside the city.

The site has also published investigative reports that delved into local Green Party politics, showed how Santa Monica spent more money providing basic services than other comparable cities and uncovered how its police force is among the highest paid in the region, if not the nation.

Columnist Frank Gruber has provided thoughtful analysis of issues -- both local and national -- that affect Santa Monica, and music critic Tomm Carroll has kept readers abreast of the vibrant Westside music scene.

Carroll was one of the many writers and employees from The Outlook who helped steer the site through its early stages. Heinze Kohne, The Outlook’s production manager, helped with the technology and systems support necessary to launch surfsantamonica.com, and Outlook librarian John Sweeney provided valuable research.

For three years, Outlook sports editor Mitch Chortkoff wrote a weekly sports column and during the site’s first year, Outlook reporters Anne LeJeunesse, Kim Irwin, Josh Grossberg, Saul Rubin and Mary Moore helped to provide the kind of professional news coverage the city was accustomed to, while Pat Alston and Sandra Parker have lent their advice and long-time experience as editors.

“None of this would have been possible without the talent, skill and commitment of former Outlook staff who helped launch the site and kept it going during its tough initial phase,” Casuso said.

Surfsantamonica.com has also been a forum for those without a background in journalism who are gifted writers. Tom Laughlin, creator of “Billy Jack,” wrote a weekly news column; Barbara Lasser dispensed valuable insights in “Mindful Living;” Jodi Gusek provided an inside glimpse of the area’s surfing subculture in "Surf Betty" and Caitlin Cross-Barnet provided recipes and health tips in "Vegetarian."

Surfsantamonica.com has also been a training ground for journalists. Teresa Rochester is now an award-winning reporter for the San Bernardino Sun, Elizabeth Schneider is a researcher and writer for the Election Reform Information Project in Washington D.C. and Erica Williams is a staff writer for the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

The current staff includes Oliver Lukacs, Blair Clarkson, Juliet McShannon, Olin Erickson and Mark McGuigan. Former Outlook business editor Ed Moosbrugger’s Downtown business column also runs every month on the site.

Over the past five years, surfsantamonica.com has built a large and loyal local following that includes the City's top officials and civic and business leaders. The site is also visited by many area residents and out-of-towners interested in Santa Monica.

To mark its anniversary, surfsantamonica.com has launched a new look that allows readers to access stories more readily and navigate different sections with more ease.

In 2001, the site was recognized with the Chamber of Commerce’s “President’s Award.”