No one in Seattle has cracked the code for turning a local news website into a financially sustainable project, but Peter Buck, a land-use attorney with limited internet experience (but a family history in the newspaper business), is taking a gamble. Today he’s launching the nonprofit Northwesthub.org—which will focus on land-use disputes, real estate, and related city politics—with a squad of attorneys, sponsors, and internet-savvy writers. “They’ve got us on Twitter, but I don’t even know how to get on Twitter,” Buck acknowledges.

“I am very keenly aware that, you know, online news sites are just dying for lack of revenue,” Buck says. His formula is an experiment for this sort of site, he says. Already eight sponsors have signed on, a hodgepodge of transportation and development design firms, that are desperate for exposure to industry insiders while their markets struggle. Buck plans to add architecture firms and others to the mix. In the meantime, he invested the start-up capital to hire five full-time employees, including Managing Editor Ashley DeForest, an Oregon land-use planner, and several law students. It stands to be the definitive news site for regional planning and development leaders, running pieces like unpacking court court cases on growth management and an interview with Peter Steinbrueck before he leaves to become a Loeb Fellow at Harvard.

But Northwesthub has two intertwined challenges. The first is a conflict of interest. Land use is a niche—granted, one with sweeping impacts and the source of raging disputes for the entire city—and many companies that invest in the site will have stakes in the topics. For instance, Buck’s firm, the Buck Law Group, is representing Déjà Vu strip clubs in a contentious showdown with the Mariners about whether the club can open near Safeco Field. The case opened a can of worms about where strip clubs can go in the city, and the Mariners are considering appealing to a state court. How does a site with a vested interest cover a big land-use issue like this? “It is the same danger that any traditional newspaper has always faced, but we face it more strongly,” says Buck, who vows to maintain a firewall between cash and content. The second challenge: The board of directors, which include Kery Murakami, editor of the Seattle PostGlobe, elected to avoid taking editorial positions, Buck says, even nixing any plans for opinion pages.

But while the lack of opinion or advocacy could bode well for sponsors—who don't want to pay for bad press—it could be a fatal flaw for attracting readers. Some of the most successful niche news websites are admittedly biased blogs and aggregators. Land-use news, in particular, could benefit from the theatrics of opinion more than most subjects. The arcane details can be incomprehensible—e.g., the city is overhauling the multi-family zoning code, which is a 277 page bill of jargon. But the impacts will rewrite rules for all new townhouse, condo, and apartment construction. Developers will squeal; NIMBY's will be shrill. Who's actually right? Readers will look for real-world perspective. It would be a missed opportunity for Northwesthub to assemble experts who can distinguish between bullshit and good reason—an asset the city needs more of—and then keep their opinions muzzled.

“We are not seeking to be highly read by all the people in Seattle,” says Buck. “Our goal is a targeted audience and we absolutely recognize it as an experiment in uncharted waters.”