The organization was created in 2009 by venture capitalist
John Thornton and veteran journalists
Evan Smith and Ross Ramsey. The idea for the organization originated with Thornton, who spent much of 2008 and 2009 promoting public interest in the concept of journalism as a public good. Thornton wrote, in July 2009: In Micro 101, we learn that such "public goods" as clean air and national defense will not be produced in sufficient supply exclusively by market forces. Allow for the sake of argument that what I'll call "capital J" Journalism – journalism that takes on serious, complex issues and puts them in the context of how citizens interact with their government – is such a good. Thornton and his wife, Julie, seeded the venture with $1 million of their own money to fund the organization's nascent operations and began to raise money from around the state and around the country from individuals, corporations, and foundations. Pickens in particular donated $150,000. Foundations donated about $1.1 million, including a total of $750,000 in grants from the Houston Endowment. The
Sid W. Richardson Foundation of Fort Worth also gave a $100,000 operating grant beginning from 2015 and continues to provide an operating grant. The
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation donated $250,000 in late 2009, and their subsequent donations totaled $2 million by December 2016. That month, they announced that they would match up to $25,000 in gifts of $1,000 or less pledged to the
Tribune between then and January 19, 2017. Most of the 68 corporate sponsors made a $2,500 commitment as co-founders of the publication. Thornton stated in January 2010, "In the coming months, we intend to become far more sophisticated in the way we market corporate sponsorships of both our site and our events series, TribLive." Thornton hired Smith, the longtime editor of
Texas Monthly, to be CEO and editor-in-chief of the
Tribune, and the two recruited Ramsey, the longtime editor and owner of
Texas Weekly, to be managing editor. Emily Ramshaw, of the
Dallas Morning News; Brandi Grissom, of the
El Paso Times;
Elise Hu, of
KVUE-TV; and Reeve Hamilton, who covered the Texas Legislature for
The Texas Observer. Morgan Smith, formerly of
Slate, started writing for the
Tribune in January 2010. Thornton raised more than US$2 million before the project was made public in July 2009. In March 2025,
Tribune founder John Thornton died. He was 59. ==Personnel==