Evan Smith's Texas Tribune Brings Old-School Reporting Online

Amidst all the hullabaloo about the Web killing print magazines, newspapers, reading, and our brain cells in general, a new site has quietly been making waves with… actual journalism.

Texas Tribune is a nonprofit online organization that focuses on public policy, politics, government, and other hard news topics that advertisers — and let’s be real, most readers — don’t want to support. In our Media Beat interview, CEO and editor-in-chief Evan Smith said he launched the initiative to fill that void.

“The problems of Texas like everyplace else are as big as ever, and we need that kind of coverage regardless of whether there’s a for-profit model to support it,” Smith explained. “So, we said let’s go out and raise money from generous people who give to causes all the time and see if we can’t support a nonprofit alternative to providing public service journalism.”

So, what has the print vet learned about the new media world thus far: “When you publish something online, that’s when the magic begins.”

Part 2: Evan Smith of Texas Tribune: ‘People Assume the Media is Liberal’

Part 3: Evan Smith of Texas Tribune: ‘Journalists Deserve a Living Wage’

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.