Nonprofit Texas Tribune Launched

Last month, Portfolio.com talked to Evan Smith, CEO and editor in chief of the Texas Tribune, a nonprofit news site that had not yet launched. At the time, Smith said that an editor at a major Texas newspaper said, "We're gonna crush the Texas Tribune."

"To some degree, it's wishful thinking on their part that we'd just go away," Smith said nearly a month before his site launched. "They just refuse to acknowledge that we're doing something potentially worthwhile. We see ourselves not as the disease, but a cure."

After 18 months in development, the site—originally conceived by venture capitalist John Thornton—went live today.

In a welcome post, Smith writes, "What we intend to accomplish with the Trib—what we mean to do on an ongoing basis—is right there in our stated mission: to promote civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide concern."

After listing several of the site's features and plans for its future, Smith writes, "In time, we hope you'll think of us as a big-box store for political and policy junkies in Texas—a place to get everything you want and need under one roof."

PaidContent's Staci D. Kramer reports that the Trib has enough funding—cobbled together from donors and foundations—for two years. Kramer also notes that the Trib's 16 employees are competitively compensated—up to $90,000 a year for reporters and $315,000 a year for Smith. Three others earn in the six figures. Employees are deferring part of their salaries to the overall budget.