Texas Tribune Launches With Style

The Texas Tribune is a new non-profit, non-partisan public media organization that officially launched this week. They have recruited an amazing group of executives, reporters and supporters in this effort to create a new way for Texans to gather and interpret information.

Their mission is to promote civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide concern.

They will do this in two principal ways:

First, through the original journalism they report, write, compile, record, shoot, etc., and post online at their destination site, texastribune.org, and in the pages and on the sites of their distribution partners.

Second, through on-the-record, open-to-the-public events: conversation series featuring elected officials and other newsmakers, conferences on major topics of interest to every Texan, an annual ideas festival, a college tour, and more. The point is that in-person experiences are themselves distribution platforms, and once the event is over, the audio and video of what took place becomes content of its own, likewise available on their site and beyond.

To kick off the launch, they hosted a party for their friends and supporters at The Belmont. WOW, what a night. The event was the most eclectic gathering of Austinites I have seen in years. There were politicians, lobbyists, reporters (and other media professionals from television, print, radio, and internet), entrepreneurs, lawyers (and other professionals), accountants, philanthropists, local celebrities, venture capitalists, bankers, investors, ranchers, Realtors, social media practitioners, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, older folks, younger folks, and everything in between.

Everyone had a great time. It was fun to see so many people from different walks of life all hanging out celebrating something new. It reminded me that we all have more in common than we have differences.... and that too often we put up artificial barriers because of the labels we wear (on purpose or assigned by others!).

If The Texas Tribune can live up to its "non-partisan" charge and embrace the objectivity that I believe most people desire from news sources.... then I predict they will successfully navigate this experiment of non-profit journalism.

I look forward to reading it daily!

CLICK HERE to learn more about The Texas Tribune.

Have A Great Day.

thom