Posted by By Shawn Williams – Dallas South News Editor
Evan Smith, Editor - Texas Tribune
On Tuesday the state gained another nonprofit news organization when the Texas Tribune officially launched their website. On Monday I traveled to Austin to chat with Tex Trib Editor Evan Smith as he and his staff counted down the hours left before the site went live.
As you might imagine the newsroom was abuzz. Staffers were interviewing each other to document the day, tech guys were working out the bugs, and Evan was going from station to station and checking out the site’s status real time on his MacBook. The Tribune offices just blocks away from the State Capital in a building that also houses the Austin Museum of art.
Evan Smith on how Texas Tribune came to be (3:40)
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The Texas Tribune looks to cover Texas public policy and politics like no other news outfit in the state. With 9 salaried reporters, 1 reporter shared with Austin’s KUT, another contributing writer, and Smith, The Trib has more staff dedicated to the subject of Texas politics than anyone else. Smith says they’re “flooding the zone.” Reporters will cover traditional beats like Health, Criminal Justice and Education will employing all the tools of social media from Twitter to blogs.
But I asked Smith the question that I’m often asked regarding Dallas South News: why nonprofit? “It’s a model that works,” Smith said, noting that he’s talked to many other nonprofit news agencies around the country, including Voice of San Diego, Minn Post, and Pro Publica.
The idea for the Tribune actually came from venture capitalist John Thornton (note to self, find venture capitalist). With Thornton’s backing, Texas Tribune has a solid financial foundation on which to build. Smith says the group has a $1.6 million budget for year one, with budgets of $2.0M and $2.3M for the following two years. They plan to sustain their current operation based on this budget, even growing to staff a Washington D.C. reporter down the road.
Smith on state of journalism and news (2:49)
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But even with Smith’s smarts, Thronton’s capital, and a slew of hot reporters siphoned off from the best newspapers in the state, the star of the show may be the website itself. Monday was like the day before Christmas in the office with the editor hardly able to wait to open his toy at midnight. Smith’s eyes lit up as he showed me various features on the site; a directory of elected officials, Twitter feeds for state politicians, financial statements for Texas politicos (available as PDF’s no less), it’s a virtual candy store for political junkie.
“This site is as important for its information as it is for its journalism,” Smith said, “it will help make Texans more educated voters and problem solvers.”
Texas Tribune Newsroom
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