Not too many newspapers today make a point of being nonprofit. The re-launched Key Peninsula News has no choice.

It is set up as a 501(3)c organization, as it was before it closed down last August.

The paper served the Key Peninsula area, from the Purdy Bridge south to Longbranch. And if new editor Rodika Tollefson has anything to say about it, it will again. Tollefson moved to Vaughn when she became a Peninsula Gateway reporter. After she left her job there to raise her two children her family moved to Lakebay. She is now a part of the community and has been for the last 28 months.

The newest edition of the monthly paper was due Feb. 1. The paper had a circulation of 7,200, according to Hugh McMillan, a contributor and member of the nonprofit Key Peninsula Civic Center Association board in control of the paper. The board is the publisher.

“We want to be a community-building forum and we want to break even,” said Bill Trandum, who has played a major part in resuscitating the free newspaper.

The community has about 15,900 residents according to the last 2000 census. It is a fiercely independent area on the outskirts of Pierce County, whose residents do not think they are adequately covered by other area newspapers.

The Key Peninsula News had existed as a monthly for more than 25 years. Marty Marcus and Ann Waldo led the charge as editors in recent years but reported losses to the Key Peninsula Business Association throughout the first half of 2002.

They ran out of money.

The Angel Guild, a small charity group on the Key, has helped in the past and continues to help fund the paper. According to Trandum, they cannot afford to give enough to make the paper profitable.

“That comes with advertising,” said Trandum, who has worked at the Tacoma News Tribune in the past.

That advertising won’t come easily. At a recent meeting to get potential advertisers to sign on the bottom line, only one showed up.

“That means we’ll have to get on the phones and do some more work,” Tollefson said. “People have been excited that we’re starting again.”

A meeting the week before pegged about seven or eight writers, who will contribute on a volunteer basis.

(Editor’s Note: Temple A. Stark is a free-lance writer living in Port Orchard. Reach him at writer@templestark.com).