The once-thriving community conversation has been winding down for many months now, despite the best efforts of our own Max Sparber and the most recent editor, Cristina Cordova. But Thursday afternoon, Secrets of the City principal Matt Bartel posted this announcement:

Some of you may have heard that our editor, Cristina Córdova, and publisher, Kristin Henning, are both leaving the country next month (not together). Without them, I’m afraid that we (The Bartel Cartel) can no longer manage this site. So we’re looking for someone to step up.

Aside from our most valuable asset, the crew of MNSpeakers who regularly post and comment, here’s what we have to offer:

• MNSpeak blog and archives
• Daily Secrets written by Kate Iverson
• A list of 8,000 opt-in email subscribers on the Daily Secrets and Weekly Deals lists
• The 5-year-old Theater All Year ticket program
• An event and restaurant database with over 2,600 local venues (including 800 restaurants)

As noted here earlier, Tom Bartel (Matt's dad) left for Ecuador this summer, and Kris (Tom's wife) is joining him.

Is there some up-and-coming site that doesn't want to build certain features from scratch? Bartel is open to selling the thing off in pieces, and has even asked the indefatigable chatterers if they want to try a co-op.

It was big news in 2006 when the Bartels — who then published the since-shuttered Rake Magazine — bought MnSpeak from founder Rex Sorgatz. Eventually, Rake's content and MnSpeak's were folded into Secrets of the City; MnSpeak is now the name of the talk department.