The Texas Tribune joins the Hub in new partnership
We are thrilled to announce that The Texas Tribune, a long-time collaborator, is joining the News Revenue Hub to grow its reach, engagement, and membership program. The Tribune has long been a leader in membership, revenue and sustainability, and transparency; through this partnership with the Hub, the Tribune will prioritize those efforts even further.
The Tribune, which was founded in 2009, is a digital-first, nonprofit news organization that informs and engages with Texans about politics and public policy. In addition to optimizing their membership program, the Trib is also looking to recharge their newsletter offerings. The Hub will work closely with staff to develop and deploy new strategies in these two critical areas, establishing best practices that can be shared across the news industry.
In January of 2023, Sonal Shah became the Trib’s new CEO. The shift in leadership, on top of the changes in the news industry over the past few years, make now an ideal time to embark on a strategic partnership.
“This work makes so much sense,” said Texas Tribune Chief Operating Officer Natalie Choate. “Several years ago, we set an ambitious strategic plan that recognized membership as the highest form of engagement. By working with the Hub and under the leadership of a new CEO, we get to put that strategic plan into action, putting membership at the center of all we do.”
“We’re incredibly excited about what we’ll achieve together,” Choate added.
This partnership is a natural outgrowth of the Hub’s relationship with the Tribune. The Independent News Sustainability Summit, which premiered in 2022, is hosted and organized by LION Publishers, News Revenue Hub, and RevLab at The Texas Tribune — a training and innovation center housed within the Tribune. Daniel Craigmile, the Hub’s Chief Technology Officer, previously led the Tribune’s technology team.
“We’ve long been friends, collaborators and admirers of the Tribune,” said Mary Walter-Brown, the Hub’s founder and CEO. “I’m thrilled to deepen our work with them through this partnership, and I’m so looking forward to sharing our learnings with the industry at large.”
One of RevLab’s core tenants is the value of open source sharing — offering best practices to sustain, maintain and advance the business of news. Outcomes from the Hub and RevLab’s work together will be shared widely, through case studies, presentations, and other real-time documentation.
“The RevLab worked so closely with the Hub last year on the Summit, thinking through what learnings those in for-profit and nonprofit needed to walk away with,” said Emily Dresslar, director of RevLab at The Texas Tribune. “We already have a great working relationship and know they can help to take The Texas Tribune where it wants to go.”
“This is an ideal partnership ,” said Walter-Brown. “The Trib is an important role model in this industry and they work hard to maintain that excellence. By partnering with the Hub to level up their newsletters and membership program they’ll help demonstrate and share high-level best practices for their peers in the industry.”