BRIEFS.

*Orange County on-line effort shuttered: A joint project between the company that started the successful on-line site San Diego News Network and the Los Angeles Times shut down last week after only four months of effort. The Orange County Business Journal reported that U.S. Local News Network -- the parent company of the San Diego operation -- told the four full-time workers and a collection of free-lancers who had produced the OrangeCountyLocalNewsNetwork.com that the site was ending. In a note to the Orange County Weekly, the Times' Nancy Sullivan said that the site had "run it course as of today." Under the agreement, the Times provided the Orange County site with news and advertising, while USLNN provided management and direction. The site's staff worked out of the Times facilities in Costa Mesa, Calif. The Business Journal reported that USLNN has raised about $3 million -- including $1 million in January -- to roll out sites in 40 cities nationwide in the next two years. Besides San Diego, the company currently has only one other site, in Riverside, Calif.

*FCC continues to consider cross-ownership: As part of its quadrennial review of media ownership rules, the Federal Communications Commission last week sought public comments regarding the common ownership limits between radio stations, TV stations and newspapers. Under the Telecommunications Act of 1975, the commission is required to review the state of its rules regarding the ownership of broadcast licenses every four years and while the last two reviews introduced new rules, they haven't gone into effect because they've been challenged in federal court. Nonetheless, the commission is moving forward with the next review anyway. The review will proceed, said Julius Genachowski, the FCC's chairman, in order to "help ensure that our media ownership rules continue to protect consumer interests in today's marketplace." The review this year will also address the impact of the Internet on broadcast media.

*NY Daily News staff 9% smaller: A buyout offer in the newsroom at the New York Daily News garnered about 30 takers, various Manhattan media reported last week. The result gives the 535,059-circulation paper an editorial staff of less than 300. Those taking the buyout were offered two weeks of severance pay for every year they'd been at the paper. The New York Post and New York Observer reported that George Rush, a longtime gossip columnist, chose to take the buyout (his wife and writing partner, Joanna Molloy, elected to stay), and others departing include 40-year veteran feature writer Mila Andre, 35-year veteran photographer and picture editor Charles Ruppmann and 20-year veteran political reporter David Saltonstall. The paper has said that severance packages will be halved in any subsequent buyout offers.