Tidepool, an influential online publication that has served as a self-styled "bioregional news service" for the Pacific Northwest and a model for such undertakings elsewhere, has a new institutional home.

In January, Tidepool announced it had become part of the Seattle-based Northwest Environment Watch, NEW, a "not-for-profit research and communication center, founded in 1993 to promote a sustainable economy and way of life in the Pacific Northwest."

Founded in 1997, Tidepool was published by the Portland-based environmental group Ecotrust until 2003. At that time it became an independent online publication with plans to do fundraising along the lines that National Public Radio does.

Northwest Environment Watch publishes the Cascadia Scorecard, an index of key trends considered important for measuring progress toward a sustainable economy in the Northwest, as well as books, reports and a daily blog.

An announcement about Tidepool's new status as a "project" of Northwest Environment Watch says the new parent organization "will upgrade and enhance Tidepool, giving it a more-powerful technology platform and improved subscriber services."

NEW spokeswoman Elisa Murray told Environment Writer it will first seek to find out more about Tidepool's readers and what they want before embarking on any major editorial changes.

Tidepool has served as a "news filter" for its region, primarily offering summaries and web links for environmental and related articles.

"We continue to see its role as a key news source for the Northwest, compiling the best news stories," Murray said, adding that Tidepool's longstanding "hard-news focus" is unlikely to change.

Other features may be added, she said, such as blogs, commentary, story categorization, and improved database functionality.

NEW is dedicated to keeping Tidepool alive and improving it and will raise funds toward those goals, Murray said.

Succeeding Derek Reiber as Tidepool's editor-in-chief is Kristin Kolb-Angelbeck, a former news editor at the Chicago-based political magazine In These Times.

For more on Tidepool and its history, see an article in the September 2003 issue of Environment Writer.