John Thornton, Venture Capitalist Who Founded The Texas Tribune, Dies at 59

John Thornton, a financier that has exploited his wealth and influence to undertake the apparently who knows the apparently who -up -to -revive mission to revive local journalism in a moment of crisis, founding Texas Tribune, an organization of fundamental regional non -profit news and the American Journalism Project, which supports local digital editorial offices across the country, is dead on Saturday in Texas, in Texas. He was 59 years old.

His death, by suicide, followed a long struggle for mental health, said a spokesman for the American Journalism Project.

Mr. Thornton helped to change the financial model for sustainable local journalism when, in 2009, he founded The Texas TribuneA non -partisan multimedia organization supported by the members. The tribune, which began with 11 journalists and editors focused largely on the policy of the state of Texas, now has a drafting of over 50 staff members who cover local issues in all 254 state counties, as well as a congress journalist in Washington.

That success inspired Mr. Thornton to try to replicate the model at national level with the American journalism projectAn effort of “business philanthropy”, as he defined it, based in Washington. It started it in 2019 with Elizabeth GreenFounder of Chalkbeat, an organization of non -profit educational news.

Both the tribune and the journalistic project aimed to fill the gaps created by the decline or the disappearance of the news organizations local inheritance in an era in which the most American were turning to remote corners of the internet and social media for news-o something that resembled him. That decline had exhausted the ranks of journalists who could otherwise cut local corruption and monitored the billions spent by state cities and governments.

Mr. Thornton’s idea was to touch large philanthropies, rich donors and basic supporters to create non -profit digital points of sale “who would play the role of the American newspaper, but be financed as civic institutions, such as ballet”, Sarabeth Berman, managing director of the American journalism projectHe said in an interview.

With the support of socially mental groups such as Emerson Collectivefounded by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs e Arnold VenturesBased in Houston, the project has collected over $ 225 million to help finance 50 non -profit news points in 36 states, as well as providing strategic assistance.

The first 22 editorial offices were on average doubled since they received their subsidies and created jobs for more than 200 journalistsaccording to the organization.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that John Thornton changed American journalism and saved him,” said Evan Smith, co-founder of The Tribune, in a note. “Nobody made this do this. He thought he was getting up and supporting, with his time and money, the right type of journalistic organizations across the country because he knew the consequences of the vast need not to be satisfied.”

Even like that, Mr. Thornton – as the best manager of Austin VenturesWhere he helped to supervise over 4 billion dollars in managed activities – he did not start his foray into journalism as a crusader for the truth.

“In my daily work, they are a venture capitalist, so like much more in my life, this was born from a search for financial gain,“He wrote in The Tribune in 2009, telling his original mission.” In 2007, he hit my partners and me that the constant decline of the American newspaper industry once of $ 60 billion should present some financial opportunities for businesses such as ours “.

He and his Austin Ventures team concluded that local newspapers looked like a dangerous investment. But the dangers for the American political system seemed even bigger if their mission was not full. “The commercial press”, he added, “is too fragile for our democracy on which to rely on all the news and information that we must work as responsible citizens”.

John Douglas Thornton was born on April 9, 1965 in Wichita, Kan. After obtaining a diploma from Wichita Northwest High School in 1983, he obtained a degree in Economics from the Trinity University of San Antonio, graduating first in his class in 1987.

He worked for McKinsey & Company before heading to Stanford University, where he obtained a master’s degree in Business Economics in 1991. He then joined Austin Ventures, where he led almost 50 software investments.

The Austin Ventures team “has established very quickly that there was to be easier to make money” than investing in journalism, recalled Mr. Thornton. In a Interview 2010 With Columbia Journalism Review, he described a “stutter” meeting in which the suggestions to save the newspapers included the publication of more photos of pets.

“I thought:” Two hours passed and journalism has not been mentioned, “he said.” This is when the light went on for me, that perhaps public service journalism “is a” public good just like national defense, clean air, clean water “.

Armed with a little more than a blurred concept, Mr. Smith, former editor of the award -winning magazine Texas Monthly, was convinced, being the director and president of Texas Tribune, e Ross RamseyAn important journalist and publisher in Texas, who is an executive editor.

“We didn’t have a corporate plan,” Smith said in an interview. “We had no search that we had done on the feasibility of this. We did not do any focus groups. What we had was a piece of brown butcher paper from a barbecue restaurant on which we had scribbled notes on what we wanted it to be this thing.”

As the first president of the Tribune, Mr. Thornton provided $ 1 million initial in Seed capital and other $ 1 million the following year. By the end of 2009, the Tribune had attracted about 4 million dollars in funding, including $ 500,000 from Houston endowment$ 250,000 from Knight Foundation and $ 2,500 each of over 60 company sponsors.

It turned out to be well spent money. Over the years, the Tribune has won Peabody and Edward R. Murrow Awards, among many others, and last year was a Finalist for a Pulitzer prize For his investigations, in collaboration with Prismo and the PBS “Frontline” program, in the police response to the mass shooting of 2022 at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

The tribune has been credited as inspiration for similar points of sale throughout the country, including Calm down In California, The independent Nevada and the Clean-Vanning Mississippi today.

When Mr. Thornton has resigned From the Tribune Board in 2022, the organization had collected about $ 120 million from individuals, foundations and companies. “I would describe it as a makeup worthy of Houdini,” said Smith, who also resigned at that time.

Mr. Thornton survived his wife, Erin Thornton, whom he married in 2019, and by his stepchildren, Wyatt and Wade Driscoltl. Her wedding with Julie Blakeslee It ended with divorce in 2010.

Mr. Thornton’s financial career continued while he was involved with journalism. In 2016, he and Chris Pacitti, a longtime Austin Ventures partner, founded Elsewhere partnersA company that invests in Bootstrap software companies.

But the need to find new ways to tell the truth to power remained in mind. In recent years, Mr. Thornton has seen his revolutionary news model as more crucial than ever, given the continuous troubles of local and regional newspapers and websites.

“My local newspaper arrived on the market 18 months ago or so, and I had rich friends, really civilians who said:” Well, what do you think? “” Thornton said in a Interview 2020 With vox. “And my answer was:” Well, what will they pay you to take it? “”

If you have thoughts of suicide, call or send a message to 988 to reach suicide 988 and go into crisis or go to SpeakOofsuicical.com/resources For a list of additional resources.