Texas Tribune Hires a New Top Editor

Starting in the fall, when he learned that Ms. Ramshaw and Ms. Zamora would be leaving, Mr. Smith looked beyond Texas for their replacements. He said a conversation with Ben Smith, the editor in chief of BuzzFeed News, who is joining The Times as a media columnist on Sunday, had led him to Ms. Ishmael and Ms. Tran.

In their time at BuzzFeed, Ms. Ishmael and Ms. Tran seized on the realization that readers who arrived at the site via social media tended to do so on their phones — a truism today, but underappreciated at the time — and set about building mobile-specific apps.

Evan Smith said that although the pair would be new to living in Texas, they knew how to connect with digital readers, a priority for The Tribune in 2020. Ms. Ishmael, he said, is “an enormously passionate advocate for diversity and inclusiveness.” Ms. Tran, he added, “is obsessed with how people get and share news.”

The Tribune’s newsroom has grown even as local publications nationwide struggle to survive because of declining ad revenue and other factors. The site expects to have more than 100 employees later this year, including more than 50 journalists.

The Tribune’s 2020 budget calls for almost $11 million in revenue. That amount comes from donations — John Thornton, a venture capitalist and a co-founder of The Tribune, has given more than $2 million through the years — nonprofit grants and readers who chip in small amounts to support the free site. It also receives corporate sponsorships for events, including the annual Tribune Festival.

“What I’ve come around to is, we’re the Boy Who Lived,” said Evan Smith, using a Harry Potter reference to describe The Tribune’s survival. “The road behind us is littered with the bones of well-intentioned people who tried to make this work and couldn’t.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/business/texas-tribune-editor.html