Observer Journalists Won’t Go Down Without a Fight

After nearly seven decades in print, Texas' progressive news magazine is shutting down (Photo by Maggie Q. Thompson)

Steven Monacelli, an investigative journalist on contract with the Texas Observer, was sitting at home on Sunday night when he started receiving messages from friends.

"I was hanging out with my family, and they were saying, 'I'm so sorry, I heard the news.' And my first thought was, 'What news?'"

Minutes later, Monacelli and the rest of the Observer's staff and contributors were reading in The Texas Tribune that the Observ­er's board had voted to shutter their publication after nearly seven decades in print. The news of the impending closure sent shockwaves through the state. Though it has ­suffered from a high level of staff turnover in recent years, the magazine is an institution in Texas media and progressive politics – famed as the journalistic home of former editor Molly Ivins and a tradition of investigative and longform journalism that challenged the state's conservative leaders and stood up for its land and its most vulnerable communities. As the Chronicle went to press Wednesday, the Observer board announced that they had reversed course, rescinding all layoffs and apologizing to staff, donors, and readers. "The Texas Observer lives to fight another day," Texas Tribune Editor-in-Chief Sewell Chan tweeted with the announcement of the canceled closure. "But like many nonprofit newsrooms, it faces long-term challenges, including governance, sustainability and relevance."

As evidenced by the flood of more than $300,000 in donations to a GoFundMe to keep the Observer operating, the magazine isn't valuable only for nostalgia. Just this year, senior staff writer Gus Bova won a Texas Institute of Letters award for reporting on Uvalde. Kit O'Connell, the digital editor (and a former freelancer at the Chronicle), has been nominated for a GLAAD Media Award and a Nation­al Magazine Award. Now, those journalists and 15 others are facing the abrupt loss of their livelihoods. Bova was about to go on paternity leave. Lise Olsen, a Houston-based editor, has a child in college. Josephine Lee, the magazine's investigative reporting fellow, left her teaching job to join the Observer for the year. Then there are a host of contract workers and freelancers who will be impacted as well.

According to The Texas Tribune's reporting, the decision to suddenly shut down came as the magazine was unable to build a broad base of subscribers and donors. But O'Con­nell said the magazine's journalists were never given a heads-up that the end was imminent or a chance to work on saving the magazine themselves. "I think one of the biggest problems is that the board, which does not currently have enough journalists on it and does not currently have our team as a voting member … did not involve us enough in this process," O'Connell said.

The looming end of the Observer and sudden reversal comes at a time when Texas and its residents are facing an array of threats to their rights and environment. Monacelli said that without his coverage, for instance, there would be only one reporter in the state dedicated to covering extremism and threats to democracy, while the state is home to more than 50 hate groups and the state government is rolling back reproductive health and voting rights. The magazine's forthcoming issue is focused on women's health and reproductive rights. Other new reporting is slated to focus on the state of Texas rivers. "The timing couldn't be worse, given everything that's going on," Monacelli said.

That's part of the reason the Observer's journalists weren't willing to lose the magazine without a fight. The magazine's editorial team on Monday sent a letter to the board asking members who voted for immediate closure to resign and for the board to allow the staff time to set up a campaign to save the magazine. They've won, for now. The board said in a statement issued Wednesday, "The Observer's future demands that we work collectively … we hope the Observer can be reimagined for the next generation."