UPDATE 3/29: The Texas Observer board has agreed not to shutter the magazine. Thanks to everyone who lent their support to our solidarity statement, and congratulations to the Texas Observer staff. We can't wait to see what comes next.
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A coalition of former Texas Observer staffers have
issued a statement urging the board of the Texas Democracy Foundation not to shutter the magazine, and to work with current staff members' proposals to keep the magazine open while they pursue new paths forward. We're asking fellow former staffers to sign on, and for other
Observer supporters, including freelancers and contributors, to add their names to support our statement.
It reads:
As former staff members of the Texas Observer, we are deeply disappointed by the Board’s decision to shutter the 68-year-old Texas institution in a matter of days, and to lay off current staff members who learned they would be losing their jobs from a report in another publication.
We know you appreciate the Texas Observer’s decades-long legacy of straight-talking, rabble-rousing journalism, and we thank you for your service to the magazine. We are immensely proud to have contributed to that legacy ourselves over the years.
Since 1954, the Observer has played a historic role representing the public interest and holding politicians and power-players accountable across the Lone Star state. Because of what Molly Ivins rightly called Ronnie Dugger’s “high minded idealism,” the magazine has done what no other Texas publication dared: remain beholden to no one but the people of Texas.
In our time with the Observer, we recognized we were both employees of the magazine and custodians of its legacy. Every sweaty summer day spent covering a political rally, every weekend cleaning the office basement, and every precarious budget cycle successfully navigated, was an expression of our faith in the Observer’s future of service to our fellow Texans.
We believe the Texas Observer’s future is just as valuable as its past, and are heartened by the remaining staff members’ level-headed proposal to sustain the magazine beyond the end of this week. We urge the board to revisit its decision to shutter this bastion of Texas truth-telling and ask the board to give the Observer’s staff and supporters time to map out a thoughtful path forward.
We're asking fellow former staffers, freelancers, and other supporters of the magazine to publicly lend their support to the statement by 11pm on Tuesday, March 28, in advance of another anticipated vote from the TDF board.
