business continuity: dealing with a partner's EXIT strategy

[ssling]

this is my first post to ww; apologies if this topic has already been covered elsewhere...

the situation: two business partners contribute to a website; one provides the "content" while the other does all webmaster related work. the "content provider", in my case, it is a semi-retired author / columnist who will likely produce for a couple more years, but not indefinitely. the market segment, however, is perfect for an ongoing website that is not driven solely by a single personality.

are there ways to "de-personlize" a website while still retaining the fantastic brand value from this internationally reknown author? does anyone have any experience transitioning a content based website away from a single author? are there ways i can set this up in advance (site is in development stage at the moment)?

btw, i assume some of these considerations would apply in the case of a "sudden" departure of one's parnter as well (the "hit by a bus" string got me thinking about this...)

thanks for your input!

[Frequent]

Introduce a few more writers gradually. Have your "main man" write a nice little introduction for them. Keep him as the headliner for as long as necessary for the others to develop a following. Give him a nice send off when the time comes and have him contribute special pieces on occasion if possible.

Freq---

[Marketing Guy]

Might also be useful to have your writer prepare some guides or tutorials for new authors coming on board - tips, etc to help them settle in and hopefully preserve some of the uniqueness of the site.