Ex-Texas Tribune editor-in-chief and chief audience-officer starting new venture

Editor-in-chief Emily Ramshaw and chief audience officer Amanda Zamora will soon be departing Texas Tribune to embark on a new news adventure, they announced this week.

The two senior members of the Texas Tribune team will be launching a new national, nonprofit news organization for women.

“The only thing I care about as much as informing and engaging with Texans on politics and policy is informing and engaging with women on politics and policy,” Ramshaw said. “That’s what I’m devoting my next chapter to. All women deserve the facts, tools and information they need to be equal participants in democracy and civic life.”

In a post on the Tribune’s website, CEO Evan Smith described Ramshaw this way: “Brilliant, visionary, tireless. An exceptional writer and editor. Superb instincts. Calm in a crisis. A moral center. A nose for news. An eye for young talent to be nurtured and loosed on the world. A disruptor by disposition. A savvy businessperson at a moment of inflection for serious journalism: a crafter of generous but responsible budgets, a creative chaser of revenue with unimpeachable integrity. The very best advocate for her staff at all times and in all situations.”

Ramshaw joined the Tribune from the Dallas Morning News.

Zamora joined the Tribune in 2016 after stints with the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, the Washington Post, ProPublica and the Austin American-Statesman.

“Under her leadership, the Tribune’s readership grew quickly and significantly, and we implemented thoughtful, aggressive tactics on membership, newsletters, social media engagement and other critical areas of our operations that put us on solid footing going forward,” Smith wrote about Zamora. “A champion for greater diversity on our staff and among our followers, she played a key role in the strategic planning process that will guide our work through 2025.”

“Their departures are a blow, of course, but this is an exciting development for journalism — so I’m beaming about their leap,” he said.