Texas Tribune Expansion: Challenges and Growth Strategies

Introduction to the Texas Tribune

The Texas Tribune is an Austin-based, member-supported, nonprofit organization committed to informing Texans and engaging them on statewide issues, politics, and public policy. Founded in 2009 by Ross Ramsey (owner, Texas Weekly), Evan Smith (former editor-in-chief, Texas Monthly), and John Thornton (a recognized venture capitalist in Austin), the Tribune grew from a premier newsletter into one of the country's largest statehouse news bureaus, home to over 50 dedicated business leaders, designers, technologists, editors, and reporters. Much of the Tribune's popularity stems from its coverage of major candidates for office, who are given opportunities to explain — through platforms including the organization's op-ed site TribTalk, Trib Newsletters, and live events — how they plan to tackle various public policy issues. The Tribune provides its content at no charge to print news organizations across the state, and nationally in conjunction with the Washington Post. One of its most prominent moments was Senator Wendy Davis' 10-hour filibuster on an abortion bill, which the organization streamed live on YouTube from the Senate Chamber (Ellis, 2014). Following a successful five years in operation, with an attractive revenue stream averaging $27 million, the Tribune felt ready to grow its audience base beyond Austin (Ellis, 2014).

Emily Ramshaw, chief editor at the Tribune, believes that the organization has achieved sustainable growth and that it is only reasonable to expand its scope to cover the needs of Texans outside the capital (Ellis, 2014). This, according to her, is the only way for the Tribune to advance its mission of bringing accountability to public policy to a greater reader population and to win more potential subscribers beyond the capital. In her words, "if you're tethered to the news room, if you're tethered to the hamster wheel, you're not telling stories that affect people's lives." She argues, therefore, that if the organization is to efficiently serve the entire Texan population, it must go out and engage those outside the capital just as much as it engages those within (Ellis, 2014).

The Tribune's management notes that the organization currently serves 400,000 people, while the Texan population is estimated at approximately 26 million — around 4 million of whom are potential subscribers living outside the capital (Ellis, 2014). The organization recognizes that engaging these prospective subscribers could increase subscription revenue significantly. The challenge, however, is that these new would-be subscribers may not be as hungry for in-depth analyses on public policy and political issues; if they were, they would have already subscribed. The population living outside the capital is likely skewed toward older demographics and may, therefore, be less interested in policy minutiae and more interested in brief, general news items. For the Tribune to succeed in its expansion, it must develop content that addresses the needs of both its existing insider audience and incoming newcomers — adding new layers to what it already produces so that insiders can still obtain the in-depth analyses they expect, while newcomers find something that appeals to them.

That is not the only challenge the organization must contend with in structuring its growth plans. The Tribune thrives on collaborations and partnerships, and although it provides its content for free to media houses, many of those outlets are beginning to view it as a competitor and may be unwilling to collaborate with it in its expansion. The organization may, therefore, be forced to develop new ways of delivering content. This paper seeks to address these and other concerns threatening the proposed plan's successful implementation. It is guided by the following research questions:

1. How would the proposed expansion affect the Human Resource Department?

2. Would the funding received through donations increase or decrease based on the market targeted outside of Austin?

3. How can the company determine the size of its prospective audience population?

4. Will the company run trials of local and statewide government coverage within certain markets?

5. How involved will the Tribune be in local elections, and how much of an impact will it have?

6. Will other companies in the new markets view the Tribune as competition or as an asset? What legal actions and procedures can the Tribune take to boost success if others see it as a competitor?

7. Will the organization maintain its core values during expansion?

Effect on Human Resource Management

The proposed expansion would cause major changes to the organization's business model. The Tribune would be forced to restructure its operations to produce new, brief content for newcomers in addition to the in-depth analytical content it currently produces. This would lead to an increase in specialist roles and a restructuring process aimed at formalizing the organization's human resource management (HRM) processes. With more staff hired to serve a larger reader base and new specialty roles introduced to respond to varying audience needs, the organization will need to formalize its HRM processes, define areas of responsibility, and ensure that work structures are clear and that functions and duties do not overlap (Price, 2007).

Moreover, the organization will have to invest more in employee training on two fronts: first, on-the-job training to equip staff with the relevant skills and knowledge to develop and deliver content that addresses the unique needs of both existing readers and newcomers; and second, diversity training. As the number of employees grows, issues of workplace diversity become more prominent, and the human resource department will need to work harder to make employees more appreciative of their differences and to ensure the workplace is welcoming for minority groups (Price, 2007). Failure to address diversity effectively could result in unnecessary litigation costs (Price, 2007).

Effect of Expansion on Funding and Budgeting

As far as funding is concerned, the organization stands to benefit considerably from its expansion plan. As a nonprofit organization, the Texas Tribune is funded by foundation grants, corporate sponsorships, gifts, individual contributions, and membership contributions, as stipulated under U.S. Code 501(c)(3) (Ruppel, 2007). Corporate sponsorships and membership/individual contributions are the primary revenue sources for the Tribune. For instance, proceeds from membership subscriptions nearly quadrupled between 2010 and 2013 (Ellis, 2014). If the Tribune is able, within the first year of implementing the growth plan, to win 1,000 new, out-of-Austin subscribers from the 4 million it is targeting, it stands to generate approximately $250,000 in new subscriptions and nearly $1 million in total subscriptions in that year alone. The organization also stands to attract more corporate sponsorships through its annual Texas Tribune Festival and its regular TribTalk events at colleges, both of which are expected to increase in frequency as the expansion proceeds.

Conclusion

The Texas Tribune recently announced its plan to extend its audience base beyond the state capital, Austin. This growth plan faces serious challenges, including variations in audience needs and the risk that news distributors in new markets will view the organization as a competitive threat. Toward addressing these challenges, four key proposals emerge from the analysis:

First, the organization should adopt a bifurcated audience strategy that enables it to respond effectively to the varying needs of both core and light reader groups. Second, it should shift its program evaluation approach from a summative to a formative arrangement, so that it can gauge the success of the plan based on how well it responds to each group's unique needs. Third, it should reduce its dependence on other papers by either initiating an entirely new for-profit company to publish its own stories, acquiring a smaller or underperforming paper with an established local presence, or limiting its stories to the Texas Weekly. Fourth, it must develop effective systems for training employees on both organizational and diversity ethics.

Taken together, these proposals could go a long way toward making the Tribune's proposed expansion plan a success.

References

Ellis, J. (2014). The Texas Tribune is five years old and sustainable — now what? Nieman Lab. Retrieved 20 March 2015 from http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/11/the-texas-tribune-is-5-years-old-and-sustainable-now-what/

Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2014). Business ethics: Ethical decision-making and cases (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Griggs, T. (2015). Inside the Texas Tribune's audience growth strategy. Investigative News Network. Retrieved 20 March 2015 from http://journo.biz/2015/03/17/inside-the-texas-tribunes-audience-growth-strategy/

Morrow, J. R., Jackson, A. W., Disch, D. J., & Mood, D. P. (2011). Measurement and evaluation in human performance (4th ed.). Human Kinetics.

Price, A. (2007). Human resource management in a business context (3rd ed.). Cengage Learning EMEA.

Ruppel, W. (2007). Not-for-profit organization audits with single audits (2007–2008). CCH Group.

[University]. (2008). Texas roadmap to starting a business. Retrieved 21 March 2015 from http://www.sbdc.uh.edu/images/sbdc/documents/sbdc-tx%20rd%203.2.08.pdf