RIP to Texas Tribune founder John Thornton

Per this piece, I didn't know that much about Thornton.

To start at the start? Please, get help for mental health needs. (Reading between the lines, it appears to be suicide, and one that perhaps had been looming for some time, sadly.)

On the professional side? This illustrates that philanthropy journalism isn't a savior.

Thornton was a venture/vulture capitalist. Graduated from a "citadel," if you will, for things like that — Stanford Graduate School of Business with an MBA. Worked at McKinsey. And, like many of the modern venture capitalists, though not Hucksterman or Peter Thiel, a techbro, by his investments.

People like him might back a "safe" general interest nonprofit online newspaper like the Trib, but they're not going to back, say, Jacobin. Or Counterpunch. Or Mint Press. 

And, per their political background, they'll be OK with their ventures pulling punches to appease some business interests, as the Trib has before, as I have written about.

Already at the five-year mark, in 2014, the Trib had ethics-type issues.

Jim Moore, former journalist, now political consultant, explains why the Texas Tribune's "pay to play" idea of "journalism," kind of like Politico but on a much broader front, is ethically wrong and more, in a four-part series. (Link from my original writing is dead.)

Arguably, rather than becoming more ethically responsible now that it's theoretically past its teething troubles, the Trib is worse, if anything. 

Moore notes this in Part Four:

In less than five years, the Texas Tribune has gone from being an exciting startup to a hypocritical, money-grubbing promotional operation wearing a coat of many colors that it wants desperately to convince everyone is actual journalism. But it is not. There is no reason to any longer take the Tribune seriously as a news organization. They simply cannot be trusted.

The big brains of the Texas Tribune were supposed to save journalism. Instead, they are busily speeding up its extinction.

And they ought to be ashamed.

Of course, they're not.

Much of its sellout is to largely right-wing big businesses, who make "donations" and in exchange get puff pieces about themselves and their industries. 

The type of businesses Thornton hobnobbed with and vulture capitalists with.

Hell, two years before that, Editor and Publisher has a great synopsis (dead link) of why they're not good for journalism. Three main points.

1. Their news coverage is restricted by wealthy donor interests and pressures. (E&P has specifics in the TT's case, re John Sharp/Texas A&M.) So, no "probing" journalism, if told not to. (That said, I've experienced that at for-profit papers, too.)

2. "Freeloading" by for-profit papers, with the possible result of further salary depression, etc. (We're going to see yet more of that with the Trib's new newsrooms in selected cities. The Waco Trib of Lee Enterprises will be fine with the Texas Trib starting some sort of site in Waco, as long as Lee's paper still gets Waco, Waco ISD and McLennan County legal notices.)

3. Back-scratching for friends. Evan Smith's $315K salary as the Trib's executive editor — in 2012! — has been mentioned by me before. I consider it out of line in general, especially since one of the Trib's "sponsors," Texas A&M, gets taxpayer money.

The first point is something I've seen coming down the point for some time. Rich funders of nonprofit papers, whether individuals or foundations, can steer these papers into boutique journalism, spike or lighten negative stories and more.  

With the Trib?

Especially when it comes to talking Earl, Black Gold, the Texas Tea? The Trib has always been light in the loafers about calling Big Oil to account, let alone following fellow light-in-the-loafers Politico to write something about climate change legal liabilities.

And, successful? As in profitable? Well, maybe. It depends on what metrics and how you analyze them, as we look at Evan Smith's hoorah piece, back in 2019.

OK, first, financials.

$10 million intake and $9.7 million expenses. Yes, you're in the black.

At 3 percent.

A total haul of $76 million over that decade?

How much of that haul is from your "sponsors" in what Moore called pay-to-play journalism? Or that, since that, you demonstrated was pay-to-pay with advertorial journalism?

Let's also not forget that in 2023, the Trib actually laid off people, canning 11 editorial staff.

We start internally, as Trib tries to spin its editorial staff gutting. It is worth noting that part of the cuts are on podcasts; print and digital-print media that "pivoted" to podcasts a few years ago, in yet another version of the tragedy of the commons, oversaturated the market.

The Austin Chronicle has two posts about the layoffs at the Texas Tribune. The first is a big one, for multiple reasons. It notes that, first of all, there will be no more prisons and criminal justice desk at the Trib. However, there are six new hires — none in editorial. All in either general development positions or directly in sponsorship.

Per what I've said elsewhere, the Trib doesn't go in depth on many issues, either. Take a good example of bad, or stereotyped, religion writing. There's no investigative journalism of their own, only what's partnered with Pro Publica.

 

The 2022 year in review

 Here's the top 10 posts from the last year, by readership, as not all were from last year.

1. An insider in Decatur. I don't know why this took off so much, but it did, even though it's only six weeks old. And, it took off in the first week. Dunno if it was "Decatur" being mentioned by name, or TPA, or what.

2. Lee Zion says "have my paper." This is my skeptical take on the owner-publisher of a weekly paper in Minnesota who decided he had to go fight for Ukraine. It's skeptical about why he thought he had to fight, his claims to 100-hour work weeks, and other things.

Related was No. 9: "So Lee Zion got somebody to take his paper off his hands." Sadly, the big names in the world of media criticism have never looked at this issue.

3. "More fun with the Gainesville Register." Just one of several looks at a nearby CNHI newspaper, as was No. 6, "Another CNHI fail in Gainesville."

4. "US media misinformation about Russia-Ukraine media censorship." This was my callout of folks like the Texas Freedom of Information Foundation for, during Sunshine Week, attacking ONLY Russia and NOT Ukraine as well for media censorship. I don't know whether the problem was more misinformation out of ignorance, willfull party-line warmongering or what, but it was bad.

5. "Take a pass on Wick Communications." Four years old, but, probably just as relevant today about a small chain running itself on the cheap.

7. "A new newspaper player in Texas," used the word "newspaper" loosely, as I looked at the dreck Cherry Road Media puts out and speculated about ulterior and ultimate motives.

8. "Don't apply at Hearst" looked at the shithole that the Beaumont paper has become as well as the jump-through-hoops bullshit of the hiring process.

10. "KERA to buy dead carcass of  Denton Record Chronicle." I hope the public radio station can pull off the revitalization, but I'm not holding my breath. That said, by being part of an NPR and PBS team, the paper's lagging financials can be swept under the rug for a while if they don't show much improvement. (And I doubt they will.)

KERA to buy dead carcass of Denton Record-Chronicle

Or, the Denton Wrecked-Chronic, per my inimitable style of naming newspapers.

WHY is KERA buying it?

It's a shell of itself, and as I said on Twitter, it was a shell of itself pre-COVID.

I live north of Denton, and pre-COVID, you couldn't find it here. You could find the StartleGram, and the Snooze. And, in parts of this county, the Sherman (Denison in the back seat) DumpACrap. But, no DRC.

Bill Patterson, publisher of the DRC, or DWC, clawed it back from Snooze parent A.H. Belo in 2017 after his family sold it in 1999. More on that here. As for Belo's hack job? This is like what the Austin Stateless did to non-daily papers it owned, and even pre-Craphouse, under Cox.

But, Patterson had three years pre-COVID to try to expand some of its old circulation range in print, while also tightening up paywalls more. The latter happened to some degree. But not totally. The former? Never happened. The idea of a Cooke County bureau, or even a dedicated freelancer? Never happened.

Texas Press Association lists circ at 8,403 in 2016, and plummeting to 5,463 in 2019. Now down to 4,697. It was 9,647 in 2013, so the decline accelerated during the handoff time and after, before slowing again.

Then, before the end of 2020, Patterson had already whacked in print from daily, not down to a smaller five-day daily. No. Not even to a tri-weekly. No, it was already cut to semi-weekly.

Then, last year, cut to weekly. That means you lose all the money from print versions of your grocery inserts, for one thing.

Jay Rosen claims the deal "rescued" the paper:

Meanwhile https://t.co/ySmFataYfL — which is PBS and NPR for North Texas — will absorb the Record-Chronicle, the local newspaper in Denton County, thus saving the paper from private equity crocodiles, and gaining a 13-person newsroom staff in the bargain. https://t.co/LebbPFcD25

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) September 28, 2022

To which I responded:

Jay, private equity probably didn't give a damn about the Denton Wrecked-Chronic, er Denton Record-Chronicle. It's down to weekly in print, with an average adhole of only about 25 percent even though it's down to weekly.

— TheRealSocraticGadfly (@real_gadfly) September 28, 2022

Seriously, unless for pennies on the dollar of whatever this brokered deal was, no private equity company would touch it. If it really weren't profitable, Patterson could have shut the damn thing.  Rather, I suspect that he's gotten five years older, five years less interested, no kids with interest, and this was the closest thing to a golden parachute. The National Trust for Local News' announcement, which looks like it was written in 15-year-old Courier font if not on an actual fucking typewriter, kind of confirms this train of thought.

There's other questions.

First, what does KERA know about print journalism? Uhh, about nothing.

Second? Print ad sales, especially since being NPR/PBS, it just has pledge drives and no ad sales in general? Uhh, about nothing.

Third, is Patterson staying as publisher? At the same salary? And, for just a transition period, or something longer?

Let's close by heading back to the half-dead carcass.

Oh, and an editorial staff of 13? Stretched. But, it still partnered with the Snooze for some content, as well as a nonprofit in Fort Worth. So, not stretched THAT much, assuming that 50 percent of what was local and in print was worked up well before Friday print time. 

VERY stretched if they're still doing a daily e-edition. Why? That means 5 copy edit staff. ME, AME and sports editor leaves five other people to write and shoot. If the copy editors aren't part of staff, it's not quite so thin, but still.

Before Denton went non-daily, there weren't even any semi-weeklies in Denton County. A couple of small weeklies, and that's it. So, pretty much a print monopoly. City of Denton is today about 190,000. Denton County 900,000. Lots of cities, all growing. That means LOTS of legal advertisements.

With ALL of that, its weekly print edition, almost without exception, no more than 32 pages, and usually, an adhole no more than about 30 percent or so. Classifieds, counting all those legals, outnumber display ads 3 to 1, if not more. Maybe a full 4 to 1.

Vulture capitalists would care about the paper only to the degree that there's all those legals, and nothing else. But, right now? There ain't a lot else, Jay. Trust me. Usually, I grok it every other week at a Denton Library branch. They have had some decent reporting on the Denton County Appraisal District hot mess, but not a lot else. 

And, let's get back to those missing ads.

A more specific example.

Its football season preview? In an area that big?

TWELVE pages, broadsheet. That's it. I can't remember what, if any, ads were on page 1. Page 2-11? All 6 column x 2 inch strip ads. Full page ad on the back. By the same company that had most, if not all, those 6x2 strips. With that? One semi-stock photo of one top player from each team in the preview.

I know all your big regional dailies, or former dailies, like the Snooze and StartleGram, have had major dropoffs in retail advertising the past few years. Denton shouldn't have had that much of a dropoff, but it did. That said, papers smaller than it have had that much or worse. But not all of them.

As for news coverage outside Denton County that wasn't wire stuff, to tie this to circulation? It covered the trial of the PRO Gainesville trio but not, that I am aware of, any detailed coverage of their protests. I also don't think that it's done any real coverage into Wise County.

Finally? Nonprofit status isn't a panacea. KERA ownership will surely not have conflict of interest issues like the Huntsman family's nonprofit shell for the Salt Lake City Trib. But, beyond that, nonprofit status isn't a panacea.

==

Update, Oct. 22: Somebody actually sold ads this week, even allowing for some being Halloween specials. Adhole of more than 30 percent and more display than classified.

==

Update, Aug. 28: Two months ago, more than half its ads were what HAVE TO BE frequency rate ads for the annual "Best of Denton." Really, advertisers go that all in? Why.

In one issue, throwing those out, and throwing the extra pages they created out as well, you had an adhole of 3 1/4 pages on 18. Less than 20 percent, for a paper just weekly in a city of 180,000 and county of 900,000.

Of course, if you got rid of running six days worth of comics and various puzzles in a weekly newspaper, you'd have 3 1/4 pages of ads on, say, 12 pages of print. That's almost 30 percent.Of course, nobody this side of being a true idiot would pay Bill Patterson $2.50 or whatever for that. Nor would KERA be half as interested in acquiring that. (And, why are you anyway, and are you paying attention to the Trib, and between this and WRR are you biting off more than you can chew?)

Nonprofit status no cure for what ails Salt Lake City Tribune

Ten months ago, Jay Rosen was raving about the SLC Trib quickly getting approved for nonprofit status. The Texas Tribune was offering to help it (including, surely, with making big bucks off events promotion which has now been dinged by COVID).

At the time, I said "not so fast" with the huzzahs and handsprings.

I noted on the financial side that the SLC Trib had no paywall, just a fauxwall. (It has now started one, reportedly, though I'm not sure how real it is.) I also noted it was still a legacy print paper, with overhead the Texas Trib didn't have. I also noted it's in a two-paper town. (And the Deseret News still has no paywall.) Finally, I noted that foundations who might have help for such transitions will have less help as more papers consider them. (And, in hindsight, they'll have less help available as COVID hits those foundations, too.)

Finally, I noted how the Trib's news coverage (especially on environmental issues) has been impacted by its "sponsors." 

And Poynter now says, indeed, indeed. And, it notes that last issue is the one at point.

SLC Trib ME Jennifer Napier-Pierce resigned a month ago over tussles over the paper's coverage of a Huntman scion's run for governor. The resignation, from what Poynter gleans around the edges, wasn't hugely bitter, but it was an issue, especially since a nonprofit paper can't do political campaign endorsements.

The bigger issue, as it notes? The Trib-News JOA expires the end of this year. And, reading between the lines on Poynter, apparently neither paper has done huge whacks to its print editions as of this time.

Coronavirus: Texas Trib likely to be less of a success in Year 11

I recently blogged about the Texas Tribune turning 10 and how Evan Smith nearly dislocated his shoulder from the vigor of patting himself on the back.

I also looked at the realities of the Trib versus the turd-polishing.

One reality is that 18 percent of Evan's haul for the Trib comes from events. At the time, I was condemnatory based on the fact that other places that once did "events," like Atlantic and the pre-Bezos Post, had generally dropped them.

But now, there's something besides an ethical conundrum.

The market for events has cratered with the coronavirus. As Nieman reports, O'Reilly Media has left the events biz entirely. Surely, more and more TEX Talks (better than TED Talks, cuz Evan) are being cancelled as we speak. Contributions from foundations and website sponsorships may also crater if the founders of the foundations, or the companies sponsoring the website, are in COVID-vulnerable businesses.

Like oil companies headquartered in Texas. Like two major airlines headquartered in Texas, with Southwest also having other problems to the MAX with Boeing. (Yes, most its fleet is not 737 MAX 8, but it's all 737s.)

Remember, Evan said he got lucky with Wendy Davis and her pink tennis shoes in 2013. There's only one statewide race this year, and many Dems aren't enthused about either M.J. Hegar or Royce West.

In addition, per this E and P piece, even as Gov. Greg Abbott could stand criticism for, among other things, not calling a special session of the Lege, it's doubtful Evan and the gang will do that. They didn't write about Cornyn's Corona beer jokes, after all.

And, of course, the Trib doesn't do traditional op-ed columns, let alone full-on house editorials.

The Texas Tribune turns 10: A success story, right? Err ...

Well, maybe. It depends on what metrics and how you analyze them, as we look at Evan Smith's hoorah piece.

OK, first, financials.

$10 million intake and $9.7 million expenses. Yes, you're in the black.

At 3 percent.

A total haul of $76 million over that decade?

How much of that haul is from your "sponsors" in what Jim Moore five years ago called pay-to-play journalism, as I blogged here? Care to open your books all the way, Evan? I didn't think so. Remember, at the same time, Moore called you out for lack of transparency, as well.

And, how much of your haul over the years is from advertorial pieces? Easier to do that, maybe, when you have "sponsors."

Ten years in, we still consult at no cost with any wide-eyed, big-hearted social entrepreneurs who want advice and insight on how to create an operation like ours from scratch.

I can consult like that, too, also for free.

"Dear Salt Lake City Tribune, as you now enter the nonprofit world, getcha a bunch of fucking money from big corporations. List them by name to be ethical, but ... don't let that actually bother if you shade your writing their way."

There ya go!

What Evan won't tell you, in addition, is that if that money comes from a foundation, attached to it are foundation terms of use and other strings.

Does that have an effect?

Arguably yes.

Especially when it comes to talking Earl, which the Trib don't have much of in Utah, compared to the Black Gold, the Texas Tea, and the refining thereof in Texas. The Trib has always been light in the loafers about calling Big Oil to account, let alone following fellow light-in-the-loafers Politico to write something about climate change legal liabilities. I noted that at its 3-year mark, with this piece.

Reaching more than 2 million per month on various platforms? Does that include, or not, the New York Times website on cross-produced stories carried at both places?

Speaking of separate platforms and sponsored journalism, running Trib Talk pieces separately is now being killed. That would, therefore, not be a success. How clearly they'll be distinguished in the future, who knows?

About 80 full time and part time employees? Sounds good, as others still gut. But how many are FT and how many PT?

Oh, and per that same environmental piece link, Evan, you were making more than $300 large 7 years ago. Care to tell us what the current haul is? Also within that link, Editor and Publisher had other issues to raise, like Ross Ramsey's cozy past relationship with John Sharp when comptroller, especially since the Aggies that Sharp now runs are an official "partner."

I'm surprised that Evan hasn't branched Trib Talk into a TED Trib Talk channel. He must be slipping.

Finally, given ProPublica's recently announced partnership with the Trib on investigative journalism, what happens when serious dirt gets found on a Trib sponsor?

At least Smith, in an interview with Texas Monthly, admits he got lucky. He refers to livestreaming Wendy Davis and her pink shoes inside the pink dome in 2013.

Sadly, Poynter can only see fit to write a puff piece.

I shouldn't totally bitch on Poynter. It does tell us what Evan didn't — where the money comes from:

Its diverse revenue stream, according to a 2018 financial report, is 25% from foundations, 24% from individuals, 19% from website sponsorship, 18% from events, 10% from membership. 5% is “earned.”

OK. So Poynter doesn't have a breakout of income level of the individuals. Nor $$$ amounts to attend events. Nor does it tell us that at places like The Atlantic, Washington Post and elsewhere, "events" have led to ethical conundrums — conundrums enough for said places to generally drop the "events."

Well, it SHOULD have led to ethical conundrums. In reality, Atlantic tut-tutted the people who were tut-tutting the WaPost's soirees, and this was all so it could turd-polish its own such events. This was a full decade ago, meaning that Atlantic gave Evan cover to do this at the Trib.

==

Update: This year's TribFest is going virtual. How much will that eat into the 18 percent revenue share.

SLC Tribune a nonprofit? Nice, or "nice," but a game-changer? Not by itself

Media analyst pundits like Jay Rosen and many others are raving about the Salt Lake City Tribune getting IRS approval — and quickly — to reconstitute itself as a 501(c)3 nonprofit.

If this is part of a broader package of change issues on the business side, it might mean something. As of right now? No.

Click the link above. You'll likely see a Javascript screen tut-tutting you to turn off whatever ad-blocking program you run.

You WON'T see a hard or even semi-hard paywall. You'll only see a note with something to the effect that only subscribers can read while still running ad-blocking extensions.

This is the latest move by many newspapers and other news websites to avoid an actual paywall of any substance.

We in the business know that digital dimes of ad revenue continue to lose value, especially as they're undercut by mobile nickels.

If you're not going to address that revenue loss in other ways (beyond seeking donations to you as a nonprofit), you're still not facing the revenue issue head on.

So, nice at best to be a nonprofit, and that's only with other steps. If this is the Trib's main move, then "nice" is more like it.

As for those nonprofit partnerships? ProPublica and the Texas Tribune have had some success with them. The Trib, though, has had its reporting questioned at times in the past, over whether any oil-industry partnerships had bad influence, among other things, and I have been a past questioner.

Plus, neither of them is a legacy newspaper still focusing on print operations. Also, neither is in a two newspaper town — the Trib has the larger weekday circ but Deseret News is larger on Sunday. And, the Deseret News, though itself constituted as a for-profit, is of course owned by a massive nonprofit — the Mormons.

Where it's already been done, as a couple of years ago with the two Philly papers, per AP reporting this spring on the Trib's plans? It's helped. But it is not a lifesaver. (Philly had another buyout offer round this spring as well.) And eventually, as more papers consider this, existing journalism foundations, like Knight, which gave the Philly papers a bunch of money, will have less and less to give.