Breaking: The TexasObserver had planned to lay off its staff after its nonprofit board voted to shut down. But the publisher reversed course on Wednesday and will keep publication going, following an emergency appeal that crowdsourced close to $300,000.
Robert R. Frump, a longtime board member who joined the staff of the Observer last summer to temporarily oversee business operations, and who resigned in protest on Thursday, said the Observer has always been a dicey economic proposition.Monika Bauerlein, the CEO of Mother Jones, the San Francisco-based liberal magazine, said the issues at the Observer resonated since both publications “were born into the same family of scrappy muck-raking magazines.
In a statement she released separately from the board’s, Hernandez Holmes noted that she had been recruited to join the board in early 2020 because of her experience as a political fundraiser and campaign strategist. But senior staff members were not transparent with her about the organization’s finances, she said.
“The grant was designed to be match based, and was intended to drive fundraising and build a long-term financial viability,” he said in a statement. “The Observer did not follow the correct protocol in applying for distribution of the 2023 portion of the grant. We made incorrect funding assumptions.”
Several other editorial staff members followed Ahtone out the door. The staff wrote a letter to the board at the time, asking that the board clarify the “firewall” between the editorial and business sides of the operation; open future board meetings to the staff, including meetings of its budget committee; and set about “a clearer and more explicit HR conflict resolution process.”
Frump said the core challenge for the Observer was to regain relevance and attract a younger, more diverse audience. “The Texas Observer’s base is Ann Richards- and Molly Ivins-era liberal white people,” he said, referencing the former Democratic governor and legendary Observer writer and editor. “We’re aging out.”
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