Texas Observer Will Remain Open

March 29, 2023 10:32 PM

Texas Observer Will Remain Open
posted by aniola (10 comments total)

This is the best feel-good story of a difficult week. Thanks for sharing this.
posted by potrzebie at 10:37 PM on March 29, 2023 [3 favorites]

(cw for the Guardian link, but it spells out something the TO statement didn't): Texas Observer journalists raise $270,000* in bid to save publication:

Among the unexpected sources of support for the magazine was the “fediverse” – the collection of decentralized Mastodon servers that soared in popularity following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. Many comments on the GoFundMe page mention that the donors learned about the Observer through Mastodon – where the Texas Observer was one of the first journalistic outlets to set up its own server, Canup said.


*Pretty sure it's over $300k now
posted by cendawanita at 10:48 PM on March 29, 2023 [10 favorites]

Mastodon link
posted by aniola at 10:52 PM on March 29, 2023

This is great news, though I wonder why they named their server "Canup said".
posted by zompist at 12:18 AM on March 30, 2023

The board really messed up with a big donation, apparently, and when they recognized it, they panicked?
posted by Peach at 6:19 AM on March 30, 2023

“There are more Democrats in Texas than there are in any other state besides California.”
posted by Artw at 7:38 AM on March 30, 2023 [4 favorites]

I feel like I'm missing a lot of backstory here. What the hell is happening at the board which led to all of this?
posted by clawsoon at 7:58 AM on March 30, 2023

A big donation didn't come through so they were suddenly left without an operating budget.
posted by pan at 8:20 AM on March 30, 2023

This looks like some backstory
posted by aniola at 8:24 AM on March 30, 2023

Hello to all my fellow Texas democrats out there! I feel unexpectedly buoyed by this good news =^_^=
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:27 AM on March 30, 2023 [5 favorites]