It didn’t.
Soon after news broke of the Texas Observer’s impending demise, a GoFundMe was born. Loyal readers and independent-media lovers alike flooded the page with donations, which would either go to TDF to cover “staff pay and benefits” or, if closure was indeed inevitable, be “divided equally among the staff who are being laid off.”
The staff's GoFundMe effort had raised more than $275,000 by Wednesday, prompting TDF's board to announce it had changed its mind. The board also issued an apology to the publication’s donors, staff, contributors, supporters and readers.
As of Friday afternoon, the donations totaled nearly $339,000.
The campaign to “Save the Texas Observer!” was a success. It’s since been heralded as a rare, much-needed win for independent journalism during a time when many outlets are struggling to weather a rapidly changing media landscape.
Former staff members and other well-known journalists rallied for and stood in solidarity with the Texas Observer. Its pages have displayed the bylines of juggernauts of journalism, including Molly Ivins, Jim Hightower and Lawrence Goodwyn. Reports of the closure, and subsequent news of the layoffs’ reversal, have been covered in media outlets including The Guardian, The Daily Beast and The New York Times.
Lise Olsen, a Texas Observer senior reporter and editor, called it a "huge victory for the Observer.
"But it also is a victory for the importance of investigative reporting, the importance of watchdog journalism, the importance of very incisive, cutting-edge commentary," Olsen continued. "Because the people who actually read the Observer know that's what we stand for — that we're not something that belongs in the past. We're very much a presence in today's Texas."
Olsen told the Dallas Observer that her publication is proud of its rich heritage and cited its National Magazine Award accolades. Some donors contributed $10 to the GoFundMe campaign while others gave more than $1,000. Staff had initially set a goal of raising a month's worth of operating expenses but generated at least two months' worth, she said.
After learning that the trailblazing progressive publication would live to see another day, Editor-in-Chief Gabriel Arana touted it as “wonderful news” in a post on the outlet’s website.
“The Observer is indispensable to Texas and to democracy,” he said.
Gus Bova, an assistant editor and senior staff writer, said via tweet: “Y'all! In response to the @TexasObserver staff's fundraiser, layoffs *have been averted*. Y'all did this. I'm gonna fricking cry.”
The Texas Observer’s staff wrote on the publication's website that a “contentious meeting” had occurred last Monday, during which they were formally told of the layoffs and coming shutdown. But most employees had already heard: The night before, a story about the board's plan had been published in The Texas Tribune, the Observer's longtime competitor.Y'all!
— Gus Bova (@gusbova) March 29, 2023
In response to the @TexasObserver staff's fundraiser, layoffs *have been averted*.
Y'all did this. I'm gonna fricking cry. https://t.co/WG0g1g7Sqc
Steven Monacelli, a former Dallas Observer contributor who covers extremism for the Texas Observer, told MySA, a San Antonio publication, that he was blindsided after receiving texts the evening of Sunday, March 26. "I'm sorry about the news," Monacelli recalled reading, according to MySA. "I said, 'What news?'"
Writer Andrea Grimes, a former Texas Observer staffer, penned an entry in response to the newsroom's crisis on her Substack page. The day before the board announced it had reversed course, she shared her article on Twitter.
“I wrote this because everyone needs to be clear that what's happening at the Texas Observer isn't just another case of nonprofit media struggling to sustain itself — a 70-year-old magazine is being deliberately tanked and staff are trying to save it,” she wrote in a tweet.
A change in leadership has since followed.I wrote this because everyone needs to be clear that what's happening at the Texas Observer isn't just another case of nonprofit media struggling to sustain itself -- a 70-year-old magazine is being deliberately tanked and staff are trying to save it https://t.co/Nw5ArY2Hvu
— Andrea Grimes (@andreagrimes) March 28, 2023
Laura Hernandez Holmes, TDF’s board president, announced last week that her final day would be Friday, March 31. Several other board members resigned that day, per the Texas Observer, and three new members were voted in. Olsen said the new board is an inclusive one that will continue to expand, adding that it's committed to working closely with staff on "proactive plans" for the magazine's future.
The publication has also updated its Twitter name to “Texas Observer Lives!” Still, certain former Texas Observer writers have pointed out that significant issues had been brewing behind the scenes for some time.
In a tweet on Wednesday, environmental reporter Amal Ahmed encouraged journalists covering the events at the Observer to include context about the “time the board//the current [editor-in-chief] drove out the most diverse staff the outlet has *ever* had in 68 years.”
The tweet included a link to a deeply reported article from last March published by The Objective, a nonprofit newsroom, which examined a “mass exodus” of the Observer’s employees, some of whom had complained of prejudicial treatment and a toxic work environment.
Ahmed also tweeted: “like, yeah i want TXO to survive but i also want y'all to realize that there's a lot of work to be done to make it better and make it live up to the ideals starting with idk accountability for the time the EIC personally went after the only young women of color on staff, maybe???”like, yeah i want TXO to survive but i also want y'all to realize that there's a lot of work to be done to make it better and make it live up to the ideals starting with idk accountability for the time the EIC personally went after the only young women of color on staff, maybe???
— Amal Ahmed (@amalahmed214) March 29, 2023
