The not-for-profit Texas Tribune launched this week, with the mission “to promote civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide concern…”

However, it has a disclaimer that seems a little odd:

Should I read you instead of my local paper?

No, you should read us in addition to your local paper. We’ve always believed it’s both/and, not either/or. The reason we started the Trib is not because your local paper doesn’t believe in journalism in the public interest. It does, and it produces as much as it can. But in this severely depressed economy, human and financial resources are not as plentiful as they once were.

It’s my feeling that this is something of a sop to the local press. The idea behind a native news organization is that it should be a standalone. We’re not in this so people will read our work as an adjunct.

Further, The Austin Chronicle reports, the site raised $3.5 million in capital and is paying its execs handsomely. And the site seems to have a strange attitude about whom it hires:

Texas Tribune is paying (Editor Evan) Smith $315,000 a year. (Managing Editor Ross) Ramsey is making $165,000; technology director Higinio Maycotte, $120,000; and general manager Alisha Ring, $115,000; (Brian Thevenot) is the top-paid reporter at $90,000. “You don’t want clowns who can’t get a job working for public media; you want the best you can find,” Thornton said. “Did I ask Evan to take a pay cut? No.”

Clowns? Is that any way to begin a news organization? By, effectively, calling potential contributors from your audience “clowns?” Those are some handsome salaries for an unproven model. I’ve run the numbers before on not-for-profit news, and you have to have an absolute fundraising machine to make it work. (Or those sugar daddys need to keep giving you $3 million per year.) A staff of 16 will burn through that money in no time.

Cities could benefit from an online, multi-platform news source. I’m just not sure this approach – or attitude – is the way.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 11:17 am and is filed under MediaReinvent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.