CityCast Houston sends off the non-profit local news organization that deserved better.
The Houston Landing made a huge splash when it launched as a local non-profit newsroom in 2023. But this week, it’s closing down. So, what went wrong? Host Raheel Ramzanali breaks it down with Michael Hardy, senior writer at Texas Monthly. They explore the outlet’s early missteps, how funding became a challenge, and what its closure means for local journalism in Houston. Plus, we’ll hear from some of the Landing’s journalists themselves about their favorite stories, what they loved about H-town, and more.
Stories we talked about on today’s show:
See here for the background. As I’ve said before, I thought the Landing did a great job, and I will miss their coverage. I can’t speak to the financial issues, and I’m not sure what they could or should have done to better brand or market themselves. The question that I have that this podcast episode didn’t address is how is it that San Antonio, Fort Worth, and El Paso can have local non-profit news sites that provide broad, general-purpose coverage, but somehow the same thing did not succeed here. Maybe it was all about the management of their finances, in which case another effort should be able to learn from that and do better. I agree with the assertions that Houston is far from a news desert, but there’s more than enough news here to support more than what we have covering it. If it’s a matter of needing to specialize, then pick a topic – energy, medicine, technology, climate/environment, politics, diverse communities, immigration, education, transportation, real estate – and dive in, we’ve got plenty of that for you. I refuse to believe that the failure of the Houston Landing means that nothing like the Houston Landing can succeed. I hope another effort gets launched, sooner rather than later.