LaiksOnline cites time, finances in decision to close

LaiksOnline, the Web site of the weekly Brooklyn-based Latvian newspaper, is being shut down. Begun in summer of 2000, the Web site offered English translations of articles from the Latvian-language Laiks, as well as original articles. Announcing the end of LaiksOnline in a letter to readers, Editor Rita Laima Berzina noted recent changes in her personal life -- including marriage and the birth of a child -- as among the reasons the site is being closed. "We realized it would be too difficult to keep the site up and running with no income (no advertisers) and with far less time to spend on updating and upgrading the content," Berzina wrote. The site had not been updated since early April. Meanwhile, changes might be in store for the the weekly newspaper, too: The paper is searching for a new editor-in-chief.