John Thornton, a financier John Thornton who used his wealth and influence to start a seemingly bizarre mission to restore local journalism in times of crisis, was the founding of the Texas Tribune, a groundbreaking non-profit non-profit journalism organization, American Newmerismist, which supports local digital news rooms across the country, died Saturday in Austin, Texas. He is 59 years old.
A spokesman for the U.S. News program said his death was the death following a prolonged mental health struggle.
Mr. Texas Tribune in 2009, helped change the financial model of sustainable journalism when he founded the Texas Tribune, a member-backed, digital-only, nonpartisan media organization. The Tribune started with 11 journalists and editors focusing primarily on Texas politics, and now has a newsroom, where all 254 counties in the state cover local issues in all 254 counties in the state, in addition to a congressional journalist in Washington.
This success prompted Mr. Thornton to try to replicate the model nationwide through the U.S. News program, what he calls a “risk philanthropy” effort, based in Washington. He started in 2019 with Elizabeth Green, founder of Chalkbeat, a nonprofit educational news agency.
Tribune and news programs aim to fill the gaps caused by the decline or disappearance of old local news organizations, when more and more Americans turned to the distant corners of the internet and social media for news or similar news. This decline has drained the ranking of journalists who could eliminate local corruption and track billions of dollars spent by cities and state governments.
Mr. Thornton’s idea is to use large philanthropy, wealthy donors and grassroots supporters to create nonprofit digital news media “this will play the role of American newspapers but is used as a civic agency such as a ballet agency,” said Sarabeth Berman, a journalist at the U.S.
Supported by socially like-minded groups such as Houston-based Steve Jobs’ legacy and Emerson Collective, the project raised more than $225 million in funding to help 50 local digital nonprofit news outlets fund 50 local digital nonprofit news outlets in 36 states and provide strategic assistance.
The group said the size of the top 22 newsrooms funded has doubled on average since receiving grants and creating jobs for more than 200 journalists.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that John Thornton changed American journalism and saved it,” Evan Smith, co-founder of the Tribune, said in a statement. “No one let him do that. He believes in standing up and supporting news organizations across the country with his time and money because he knows the consequences of the huge demand are not met.”
Even so, Mr. Thornton (who helped oversee more than $4 billion in managed assets as an executive at Austin Ventures) has not begun to get involved in journalism as the crusader of truth.
“In my daily work, I am a venture capitalist, so like many others in my life, it was born out of seeking financial benefits,” he wrote in Tribune in 2009, recounting its initial mission. “In 2007, my partner and I impressed my partner, the once-$60 billion US newspaper industry, the steady decline in the U.S. newspaper industry should bring some financial opportunities to companies like ours.”
He and his Austin venture capital team concluded that local newspapers looked like a dangerous investment. But if their mission is not fulfilled, the dangers of the American political system seem to be greater. He added: “The commercial media is too fragile to rely on all the news and information we need as responsible citizens.”
John Douglas Thornton was born on April 9, 1965 in Wichita, Kansas. After receiving his diploma from Wichita Northwest High School in 1983, he received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Trinity University in San Antonio and graduated for the first time in his class in 1987.
He worked for McKinsey & Company before heading to Stanford University, where he received his MBA in 1991. He then joined Austin Ventures, where he mentored nearly 50 software investments.
Mr. Thornton recalls that the Austin venture capital team “quickly determined that there must be some ways to make money easier than investing in journalism. In an interview with Columbia News Review in 2010, he described a “fusion” meeting where the recommendations for preserving newspapers include posting more photos of pets.
“I think, ‘It’s been two hours, and the journalism industry hasn’t mentioned yet.’ “That’s when my lights keep going, maybe the journalism of public services” is “the public good, just like defense, clean air, clean water.” ”
He convinced Mr. Smith, the former editor of the award-winning magazine in Texas, who is the editor-in-chief and president of the Texas Tribune, while Ross Ramsey, a prominent Texas journalist and editor, serves as executive editor.
“We don’t have a business plan,” Smith said in an interview. “We don’t have any research on the feasibility of this. We don’t participate in any focus groups. What we have is a brown butcher paper from the grill restaurant, where we write notes about what we want.”
As the first chairman of the Tribune, Mr. Thornton provided the initial $1 million seed capital and another $1 million next year. By the end of 2009, the Tribune attracted about $4 million in funding, including $500,000 from the Houston Endowment, $250,000 from the Knight Foundation, and more than 60 corporate sponsors per person.
It turns out that a lot of money was spent. Over the years, the Tribune won the Peabody and Edward R. Murrow awards, as well as last year’s partnership with ProPublica and PBS program “Frontline” to win Pulitzer Prize finalists and police responses to the 2022 mass shooting at Uvalde Robb Elementary School in Texas.
The Tribune is considered to be inspiration for similar media across the country, including Calmatters in California, Nevada Independent and Pulitzer award-winning Mississippi.
By 2022, when Mr. Thornton resigned from the forum committee, the organization had raised about $120 million from individuals, foundations and companies. “I describe it as a skill worthy of Hodini,” Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Thornton’s wife Erin Thornton survived in 2019 with his wife Erin Thornton and his stepsons Wyatt and Wade Driscoll. His marriage to Julie Blakeslee ended in 2010 with a divorce.
Mr. Thornton’s financial career continues, while he remains involved in journalism. In 2016, he and longtime Austin risk partner Chris Pacitti formed other Where Partners, a company that invests in bootstrapping software companies.
But the need to find new ways to tell the truth to power is still in mind. In recent years, Mr. Thornton believes his groundbreaking journalism model is more important than ever because of the ongoing difficulties of local and regional newspapers and websites.
“My local newspaper appeared on the market about 18 months ago, and I have rich, real deep-minded friends who said, ‘Well, what do you think?'” “My answer is, ‘Well, what do you think?'”
If you have a thought of suicide, please call or text 988 to reach 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to showeofsuicide.com/resources A list of other resources.
