US political news site the Washington Independent (TWI) is closing down this month due to lack of funds.

The site relied on donations from foundations seeking to promote journalism in the public interest.

Starting 1 December, TWI will begin borrowing content from its parent company The American Independent News Network's other national site The American Independent.

Launched three years ago, the award-winning site aimed to mix hardcore investigative reporting with breaking news stories.

TWI's reporter Mary Kane had won the second prize in the daily newspaper business reporting category at the The Society for Professional Journalists, Washington, awards.

"TWI was not just a journalistic experiment; it was also a financial one, and ultimately, the successes of the former couldn't sustain the strains of the latter," said editor Aaron Wiener in an emotional 'farewell' note on the website.

The site's first year, he wrote, was marked by a kind of exceptionalism giving the online publication the hope that TWI's new model of journalism would survive as the print publications starting collapsing, "But in the end, we fell prey to the recession just like everyone else," Weiner added in the note.