FROM THE BRINK

Storied Texas Magazine Staves Off Death With Stunning Fundraising Drive

Staff and supporters raised more than $300,000 in just three days—forcing the nonprofit’s parent organization to rescind its layoffs and take back its plan to cease publication.

Staff at a storied Texas magazine staved off what seemed like the institution’s certain death by fundraising more than $300,000 in just three days—forcing the nonprofit’s parent organization to rescind its layoffs and take back its plan to cease publication. The news capped an incredible week for The Texas Observer, which on Monday officially announced that it would shutter after 68 years of muckraking in the Lone Star State. In a statement, the Texas Democracy Foundation—which runs The Observer—apologized to staff for “the abruptness” of its layoff vote and to readers for the way the decision played out. “I just got chills,” Gayle Reaves, the publication’s editor-at-large, said after learning the news, according to a post on the Observer’s website. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of our incredible supporters and my colleagues and the board members who helped us.”