Nonprofit news site ‘The City’ hires ex-Daily News editor

The City, a new not-for-profit news site aimed at covering the Big Apple that is set to launch next year, has tapped a former Daily News editor Jere Hester to be its first editor-in-chief.

The site about $8.5 million in backing, it said.

“Local journalism is important,” said Hester, who has most recently headed the NYCity News Service at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. “It generates civic activity and keeps an eye on people in power.”

New York magazine has agreed to give stories placement on its website.

Hester said he hopes the new venture fills a local news void by covering issues including housing, health care, transportation and criminal justice.

Local news has taken its hits over the over the past year.

Last November, billionaire Joe Ricketts shut down DNA Info and the Gothamist after workers voted to unionize.

[Public radio station WNYC picked up and relaunched a smaller version of Gothamist].

The Daily News in August cut its already reduced newsroom in half — to about 40 reporters — as its owner, Tronc, tried to stem annual losses estimated to be between $20 million and $30 million.

At its peak, the News employed close to 400.

“We hope to make up for some of the loss of scope and volume that we’ve seen due to disruptions in the industry,” said Hester, the News’ city editor until 2006.

Hester said he hopes to hire at least 15 staffers in the coming weeks. “There’s no shortage of good people out there,” he said.