I opened Creative Loafing last week and found a really important story — one that I think should have been the cover story instead of the chicken story that got that exposure instead.

The story is about a former Sarasota Herald Tribune report — David Gulliver — who has taken a giant leap forward in the efforts to preserve real reporting on local issues that matter by launching a nonprofit online site called Sarasota Health News. I don’t know Gulliver but I was mightily impressed by what he’s undertaking. I admire this reporter’s entrepreneurial spirit and his commitment to finding some way to continue to investigate, report, and deliver hard news about his area of journalism — Suncoast health care.

Here’s a snippet from the CL article: “The site features the kind of content that should hit your porch every morning: stories about Suncoast health care, with a focus on everything from the finances of Sarasota Memorial Hospital to personal stories of those struggling to gain access to affordable care. And if it resembles the work of a traditional beat-working newspaperman, that’s probably because it is: The Herald-Tribune laid off SHN founder and editor David Gulliver in February.”

You can read the article in entirety by clicking here.

But what I really recommend is that you go directly to Gulliver’s site — www.sarasotahealthnews.org — and check his reporting out for yourself. He’s got a pretty comprehensive report posted today on swine flu.

I hope like hell Gulliver’s site is a smashing success. If it is, he’s breaking ground locally and giving everybody something to think about.