John Thornton, an investor who used his wealth and influence to embark on the seemingly strange mission of reviving local journalism during times of crisis, has revived local journalism during times of crisis by establishing the Texas Tribune, an American journalism project supporting digital newsrooms across the country, who died Saturday in Earthtin, Texas. He was 59 years old.
His death by suicide followed a lengthy mental health struggle, a spokesman for the American Journalism Project said.
When Thornton founded Texas Tribune, a member-supported, digital-only nonpartisan media organization, in 2009, he helped change the financial model of sustainable local journalism. Starting with 11 reporters and editors focused primarily on Texas politics, the Tribune has a newsroom of over 50 staff covering local issues in all 254 counties in the state, in addition to Washington's Congressional Reporters.
That success led Thornton to try and replicate a national model in the Washington-based “venture philanthropy” initiative, the American Journalism Project. He started in 2019 with Elizabeth Green, founder of Chalkbeat, a nonprofit education news organization.
Both the Tribune and the Journalism Project aim to bridge the gaps created by the decline or disappearance of local legacy news organizations in an age where more Americans are heading towards the far corner of the internet and social media for news, or something similar. That decline exhausted the ranks of reporters who otherwise could have eliminated local corruption and tracked down the billions spent by city and state governments.
Thornton's idea was that Sarabeth Bellman, CEO of the American Journalism Project, in an interview, was to use large charities, wealthy donors and grassroots advocates to create a nonprofit digital news outlet.
With support from socially minded groups like Lauren Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs' widow and Emerson Collective, founded by Houston-based Arnold Ventures, the project raised more than $225 million to help fund 50 local digital news outlets in 36 states and provide strategic support.
The first 22 funded newsrooms doubled on average since receiving the grants, creating jobs for more than 200 journalists.
“To say that John Thornton changed American journalism is no exaggeration, and he saved it,” Tribune co-founder Evan Smith said in a statement. “No one let him do this. He stood up and knew that with his time and money, the vast needs were not met, so he believed in supporting the right kind of news organizations across the country.”
Still, Thornton, a top executive at Austin Ventures and overseeing more than $4 billion in business assets, did not begin his foray into journalism as a true crusade.
“In my job, I'm a venture capitalist, so like many others in my life, this came from the quest for financial gain,” he wrote in the Tribune in 2009, recounting his original mission. “In 2007, my partner and I thought the steady decline of the American newspaper industry, once standard $6 billion, should present some economic opportunities for businesses like us.”
He and his Austin Venture team concluded that the local newspapers looked like a dangerous investment. But the dangers to the American political system seemed even greater for them if their mission was not met. The “commercial media” is “fragile to rely on all the news and information necessary for our democracy to function as responsible citizens,” he added.
John Douglas Thornton was born on April 9, 1965 in Wichita, Kansas. After receiving his diploma from Wichita North West High School in 1983, he first graduated in class in 1987.
He worked for McKinsey & Company before heading to Stanford University, where he received his Masters in Business Administration in 1991. He then joined Austin Ventures, where he led nearly 50 software investments.
The Austin Ventures team “decided very quickly that there was a need for a way to make money,” Thornton recalls. In a 2010 interview with the Columbia Journalism Review, he described a “stopping” meeting in which suggestions for saving newspapers include the publication of more photos of pets.
“It's been two hours and I thought, “Just journalism hasn't been mentioned,” he said. “It's probably public service journalism when the light continues for me” is “public interests like national defense, clean air, clean water.”
Armed with more than just an ambiguous concept, he convinced Smith, the former editor of the award-winning magazine Texas Monthly, to become executive editor-in-chief of Texas Tribune and prominent Texas reporter and editor, Ross Ramsey, to become an executive editor.
“We didn't have a business plan,” Smith said in an interview. “There was no research we did about the feasibility of this. There was no focus group. All we had was a brown butcher paper in a barbecue restaurant scrawled notes about what we wanted.”
As the Tribune's first chairman, Thornton provided the first $1 million at Seed Capital, and another $1 million the following year. By the end of 2009, the Tribune had raised about $4 million in funding, including $500,000 from the Houston Foundation, $250,000 from the Knight Foundation, and $2,500 from more than 60 corporate sponsors.
It turned out to be well spent money. For many years, the Tribune has been awarded Peabody and Edward R. Murrow Awards, and last year he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for investigation in partnership with Propublica and PBS program “Frontline,” a Propublica and PBS program for the 2022 mass shooting at Rob Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
The Tribune is believed to be the inspiration for similar outlets across the country, including California's Calmatters, Nevada Independents and Pulitzer winner Mississippi.
By the time Thornton stepped down from the Tribune Committee in 2022, the organization had raised about $120 million from individuals, foundations and businesses. “I'll explain that it's a worthy hoodini trick,” Smith said.
Mr. Thornton is survived by his wife Erin Thornton, whom he married in 2019, and his stairs, Wyatt and Wade Driscoll. His marriage to Julie Blakesley The divorce ended in 2010.
Thornton's financial career continued while continuing his involvement in journalism. In 2016, he and Austin Ventures longtime partner Chris Pasitti were founded elsewhere, a company investing in bootstrap software companies.
But the need to find a new way to tell the truth to power remained before my heart. In recent years, Thornton saw his groundbreaking news model as more important than ever, given the ongoing issues with local and local newspapers and websites.
“My local paper came to the market about 18 months ago. I had a wealthy, truly heartfelt friend who said, 'Well, what do you think?'” “And my response was, 'Well, what are they going to pay you to take it?” ”
If you have a suicide idea, call 988, text 988 to reach the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline, or visit speakingofsuide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
