Nonprofit "public" journalism debuts

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Almost everyone at the new Texas Tribune was up all night, putting out fires as the new nonprofit, online news service marked its initial launch.

CEO and editor Evan Smith was, however, as focused as ever. He dialed a phone number and shared some good news with the Web site designer.

"Brad, it's Evan," said Smith. "So the best thing that happened today so far is that the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard, which is a very big, you know, thing in this world, did a huge long post about how great the site is, and they mentioned you because I mentioned you, and they linked to your site."

Like a new parent, Smith grins on the phone, in the office, during the interviews that pepper his day.

"Public-interest journalism is a public good," said Smith, "in the same way that clean air is a public good, and clean water is a public good, and national defense is a public good."

Smith clearly believes in the "good" he and his staff are doing. The Tribune will dig into public policy issues - heavy-duty, hard-hitting policy issues that impact every citizen in the state: Things like health care, water, energy, public education, race, immigration and transportation; things newspapers and television stations also cover, but with far less depth and investigation.

That does not mean Smith expects the site to replace newspapers and television news broadcasts.

"This is an era of partnerships between media companies," said Smith. "We can either hang separately or survive together. And really one of the things that we present to the world that is in our favor, I think, is that we're going to give our content away to anybody who wants it."

So, Tribune articles could appear, with proper credit, in the Austin American-Statesman, the Dallas Morning News and other papers, large and small, across the state - as well as on news sites, including KXAN.com. Tribune audio pieces could air on radio station newscasts and video reports on television stations. There are also ongoing discussions about joint projects between the Tribune and other media outlets.

"Mostly we're going after the big meaty topics that may not be sexy from a commercial standpoint, but are undeniably important," said Smith.

That contrasts sharply with a push by some news consultants who encourage editors to focus on what readers and viewers say they want.

"Fire the consultants is my response to that," said Smith. "What are we in journalism if not people who not only give people what they want, but give them what they don't yet know they want or don't yet know they need? There's no point in simply running our business as one big focus group."

Of course, Smith has an advantage over more traditional media. His operation is unburdened by the need to sell advertising. The Tribune is funded entirely by donations from philanthropists, corporations and individuals, from both ends of the political spectrum. Already, he said, the site's first three years of operation is already assured by donations received so far.

The test, however, will not come so much from money raised as from eyeballs captured. If the Tribune is to succeed, it will have to convince readers they can find something there that they cannot find anywhere else.

Because for Smith, the only measure of success is whether the work of the Tribune actually gets people talking - civilly, responsibly and productively - about the big problems that concern us all.

Below is a tour of the Texas Tribune Web site: