The Nando Times, one of the newspaper industry’s first successful attempts to offer news and information online, will close up shop within 90 days, a victim of its own success.

Christian Hendricks, vice president of interactive media for McClatchy Co., said the site, launched by The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., in 1994, no longer makes business sense.

“It was very successful in what we wanted to do in 1995, but look at the competition today,” said Hendricks. “There is no local advantage” posting the same information that already appears on sites operated by national news organizations such as CNN, he said.

None of the approximately 50 or so Nando Times employees based in Raleigh will lose their jobs as a result of the shut-down, Hendricks said. They will continue their mission to support the 20 to 30 Web sites operated by McClatchy and affiliate newspapers.

A sister Web site, Nando SportServer, will also cease operating. Content from both sites will instead appear on McClatchy newspaper Web sites. Combined, the sites had 400,000 visitors last month, according to The News & Observer.

Nando Times was launched in a bid to feed the growing appetite for electronic news and information.

McClatchy purchased the newspaper in 1995 along with Nando Media, the business unit that operates both Nando Times and SportServer.

Since then, McClatchy has used Nando’s technology to shore up local online efforts, thus making Nando Times’ national scope redundant.