So here's where things stand as of Wed. morning.  There have been three tentative expressions of interest about taking over SciScoop by A. and M. and W (no, not THAT W).  Of the three A. seems extremely well qualified with the other two as reasonably strong possibilities as well.  To sweeten the pot I have offered to A. that I would continue to write 5 of 15 stories per week on a scheduled basis for a year provided he or a team of his choosing would do the other 10 per week at a level of depth of my current routine stories.  Plus, they get total creative control of the site.  

For the record, I hereby make the same offer to anybody else out there thinking about taking the plunge to take over SciScoop - I'll stay on as a "part-time" scheduled writer at a one-third total submission level to lighten the start up burden while you get your act and team together, and you get total creative control.

Folks, anybody that's out there that wants to step up to the plate and sign up for a scheduled-once-a-week-for-a-year submission to save this site, now is the time to do it and your generosity might very well make the difference in continuation or folding.  For those who think you can't write a SciScoop article, you're wrong.  You can.  Here's the Seven Step Plan to write a SciScoop article in 15 or 20 minutes that I outlined in one of the letters to the people considering taking over this site:

1. Go to Eurekalert and Science Daily and get the most interesting
press release stories that had been posted there since my
last visit, usually the day before.  Because they're press releases,
they're not copyrighted and can thus be cut-and-pasted verbatim.  If
possible I'd follow the link in the EA or SD story back to the
original press release on some particular university or national lab
site just to avoid linking directly back to EA and SD for story
credit any more than I had to.

2. Copy the press release into the SciScoop submit story form, with
four or five paragraphs max in the top part and the rest in the
bottom part.  I'd try to pick a logical story break point between the
two blocks and sometimes reshuffle the paragraphs to get the more
interesting paragrahs or quotes up front early in the story.

3. Those press releases are big on boring long titles and university
affiliations and I'd frequently cut those out or put them towards the
end of the story.  I'd find the first time the story mentions a short
name like * "blah blah blah", Smith said *  and insert
"researcher John" in front of the Smith to keep the story tight.  
Tight and punchy, juicy quote just before the break to the rest of
the story.  You never go wrong with that approach.

4. At the bottom of the story, add "From a XYZ press release" and
throw in a link to the press release itself on the XYZ text.  ALWAYS
CREDIT OTHER PEOPLE'S WORDS.

5. Add links.  THis is the value-added part of SciSCoop.  I would
find three or four key phrases in the front end story part like the
researcher's name, a specific important noun or phrase, some silly
little add on phrase in the quote ... and plug them into google.  
Usually in the first ten google references would be something
worthwhile that would be an appropriate "click here for more info"
kind of link that could be woven into the story - the researcher's
lab home page, another news source for the story being reported with
additional info, similar work by others, key background info.  
Wikipedia was antother good source for links like this along with
google.

6. Optionally, add a sentence or two up front in your own words
that's some kind of lead in to the main story - humorous, thoughtful,
off the wall, free association - preferably with links of your own.  
Local color, you see.

7. Always put in the wackiest title you can think of that's still
true to the story.  This is very important because that title is
what's going to draw hundreds of people to SciSCoop from Slashdot and
K5 and elsewhere when the see it in the RSS feed.

Voila.  Instant SciScoop story.  Me doing 15 of these a week chews up around eight to ten hours of my week I can no longer afford to spend in this way. A pool of volunteers signing up to do one of these a week could keep the site going.  Even better, I could have some "free" time to write original essays and stories instead of grinding out these pre-fab press release stories which are OK but are the equivalent of science fast food instead of steak.

Well, we'll see what happens.  I'll keep everybody posted.  And again, thanks for all your support and kind words.

Enjoy reading this SciScoop story? Here's a thousand more.

I don't post many news items because SciScoop *is* my primary source of science news on the 'Net. I also check out Slashdot Science and New Scientist, but I figure everyone else here reads those—so there's no point in duplicating them here.

But this is your decision to make, not mine, and I respect it. With that said, can you suggest another site that can replace SciScoop in my daily web surfing?

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Check out Chad's News
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OK... just kidding. I'd be seriously sorry to see the site go, and almost as sorry to see rickyjames go. I don't contribute a lot, mostly because I don't have the time. I do try to make time to vote on stories in the queue.

For my own part, I'm more of a science news consumer than content provider, so I apologize for being a non-contributor. It will come as no surprise that I also don't post on Slashdot, or just about any other news aggregation service.

I am not sure I could commit to taking over completely but I would be willing to head up a consortium of some kind.