\u201cThe combination of the two organizations is like a multiplier effect,\u201d MacDonald said. \u201cYou\u2019re both doing great stuff. If you\u2019re sort of arm-in-arm doing that together, I think it would be much more efficient and much more effective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas Public Radio<\/a> (TPR) is an independent, nonprofit media organization, organized in 1988, that serves San Antonio and communities throughout South and Central Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the airwaves, TPR is broadcast at the NPR member station KSTX (San Antonio), the classical music station KPAC (San Antonio), and several regional stations.<\/p>\n Longtime journalist Ashley Alvarado is president and CEO of TPR which has a staff of 45 team members, with one new hire coming and two positions open.<\/p>\n The San Antonio Report is a nonprofit, digital news outlet founded as the Rivard Report by former newspaper executive editor Robert Rivard and author Monika Maeckle in 2012 as a free, digital publication covering local news.\u00a0<\/p>\n Never miss San Antonio Report’s biggest stories.<\/p>\n Sign up for The Recap, a newsletter rundown of the most important news, delivered every Monday and Thursday.<\/p>\n In 2020, the board approved a name change to the San Antonio Report and named local nonprofit leader Angie Mock<\/a> publisher and CEO as Rivard transitioned toward retirement in 2022. <\/p>\n Leigh Munsil, a former CNN Politics editor, has served as San Antonio Report\u2019s editor in chief since 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n Today, the staff includes eight reporters, a staff photojournalist and three editors covering local news and topics ranging from politics, business and education to health, public safety and the food scene, and two business managers.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Report\u2019s managing editor, Laura Garcia, came from The Texas Tribune in 2024.<\/p>\n A Report For America journalist<\/a> covering the veterans and military beat joins the team later this month.<\/p>\n In addition to daily news and features, the Report also produces for readers several daily and weekly newsletters<\/a> and hosts a variety of annual community events, including CityFest and the upcoming A View from the C-Suite<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, a charitable contribution agreement, agreed to by both organizations\u2019 boards on May 11, went into effect. The Report as an organization has donated its assets to TPR, officially bringing together the two nonprofit media outlets.<\/p>\n In anticipation of the partnership, the organizations launched a combined fundraising effort, securing $1.4 million in local contributions from several sources and bringing the annual combined operating budget to $10 million.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we needed any further confirmation that this was the right decision, at the end of the day, the response from our local funding community, which has been amazing, really reinforces the fact that we are on the right path together,\u201d said Alan Kramer, chairman of the TPR board of directors, at an employee meet-and-greet Thursday. \u201cTheir enthusiasm and immediate support affirm that this vision that we have been thinking about as a \u2019what if\u2019 statement for many years needed to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are already talking to national funders,\u201d said Mock, who is moving from CEO into a transformational gifts role for one year. \u201cAnd what we\u2019re finding is that there\u2019s a great interest in learning more about what it is we\u2019re doing here in San Antonio to strengthen local news.\u201d<\/p>\n Growing capacity<\/p>\n The partnership comes at a time when Texas ranks 47th nationwide for the density of journalists based on population, according to a recent report by MuckRack and Rebuild Local News<\/a>. The index shows Bexar County has five journalists for every 100,000 residents.<\/p>\n A study by the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, found that about 3,500 newspapers in the U.S. have closed since 2005, with Texas losing 45% of its newspapers despite rapid population growth. Worldwide, thousands of journalists have been let go.<\/p>\n In January, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting voted to dissolve after Congress rescinded federal funding<\/a> for NPR and PBS, putting the nation\u2019s \u201cnews deserts\u201d at further risk of losing access to news coverage.<\/p>\n \u201cTo actually get to be part of an exciting story, to get to be part of a conversation on growth, both in the organization growing, but also the capacity growing in a time where there\u2019s so much that\u2019s hard to process \u2026 it is exciting, and it\u2019s renewing and refueling for me,\u201d Alvarado said.<\/p>\n Before joining TPR in late 2024, Alvarado was vice president of community engagement and strategic initiatives at Southern California Public Radio, which now broadcasts as \u201cLAist,\u201d and led efforts to merge the digital operations of those platforms.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this case, you actually have two organizations that have both had success digitally,\u201d Alvarado said. \u201cBy combining resources we can further engage people online and across platforms, and find more ways to showcase San Antonio Report journalism, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Mock said the timing was just right for the Report to take it to another level.<\/p>\n \u201cHistorically we\u2019ve had really solid growth that\u2019s been mostly organic,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen a nonprofit news organization hits that 13- or 14-year mark, it takes a lot more to grow your audience, and you need things like dedicated marketing dollars, you need more people you know that do more things that help a mature organization find new audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n Integrating newsrooms<\/p>\n The 15-member San Antonio Report staff became TPR employees on July 1.<\/p>\n Later this month, they will move from the Report\u2019s offices at 711 Travis St. to join the staff at TPR headquarters in the Irma and Emilio Nicolas Media Center<\/a> at 321 W. Commerce St.<\/p>\n For now, the two newsrooms will continue to publish news and feature stories on their individual online sites while also sharing content across platforms. A plan to integrate the two will be developed in the coming years.<\/p>\n Munsil will serve as senior vice president for news and editor in chief, leading the full spectrum of TPR and San Antonio Report offerings.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not in a hurry to make any specific strategic decisions, we\u2019ll do a lot of thinking through opportunity areas,\u201d Munsil said. \u201cWe want to continue to be the San Antonio Report for the purposes of our audience because they love what we do. Same with Texas Public Radio.\u201d<\/p>\n Both newsrooms have a great product, even if their reach isn\u2019t as broad as it could be, she added, and the consolidation will help close that gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to be more proactive with newsletters,\u201d Munsil said. \u201cOur social [media] presence needs to really reflect all the work that gets done on the site. I think there\u2019s just a lot of ways that we can better connect to San Antonians where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n The Report has about 1,800 contributing members, and TPR has 11,600.<\/p>\n TPR\u2019s newsroom is led by Vice President of News Dan Katz<\/a> and Managing Editor Yvette Benavides. <\/p>\n Katz said combining the two media outlets will create the largest nonprofit newsroom San Antonio has ever seen, with a newsroom staff of more than 30 reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cTPR and the San Antonio Report have punched above their respective weights for a long time,\u201d Katz said. \u201cI think TPR has been ready for its next chapter \u2014\u00a0to move beyond being a scrappy newsroom to truly become the premier news source for San Antonio and South Texas, and this combination is going to put us in a great position to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n About 10 years ago, the public began turning to public media organizations like TPR as a primary news source, including breaking news and daily updates.\u00a0That made it challenging for an outlet like TPR to stay true to its identity, he said, producing long-form content and features while also keeping up with the pressures of the daily and hourly news cycle.\u00a0<\/p>\n The expanded newsroom will allow TPR to be \u201dproperly resourced to take on this challenge,\u201d Katz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Same goal under one roof\u2019<\/p>\n Andrea Drusch, senior government and politics reporter at the San Antonio Report since 2022, called it a \u201cdream team of journalists\u201d who share the same goals of serving the community working under one roof.<\/p>\n \u201dIt\u2019s exciting to think about what we can accomplish together, particularly headed into a big election this fall<\/a>, where Bexar County and South Texas have such a major role to play in the broader landscape,\u201d Drusch said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve taken on so many new projects to expand our reach beyond a digital news site \u2014 from launching new newsletters, to a major uptick in live journalism and candidates debates.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While those things have become popular with readers, the staff hadn\u2019t grown to keep up, \u201cand we\u2019d sort of hit a wall in terms of what more we could take on.\u201d<\/p>\n Nathan Cone, vice president of programming, is the longest-tenured employee at TPR, having started working on its classical music station<\/a> KPAC in 1995, then later KSTX.<\/p>\n In that time, he\u2019s witnessed TPR evolve and expand, adding signals to its profile, being named Texas Public Radio and hosting events like Cinema Tuesdays.<\/p>\n Cone also called the partnership a \u201cforce multiplier.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat it comes down to for me is that I love the work itself, and I love doing the work of radio and communicating with our audience and I really feel like we\u2019re doing a good service of educating, enlightening and entertaining people in South Texas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Local news for San Antonio<\/p>\n TPR Senior Reporter David Martin Davies started TPR\u2019s newsroom at a time when it was still not clear that a public radio station needed to cover local news in addition to the national news via NPR.<\/p>\n \u201cThere actually was a raging debate about why do this \u2014 if people want local news, they can go get it someplace else,\u201d said Davies, who started his TPR career as a freelancer 25 years ago and now hosts \u201cThe Source<\/a>\u201d daily and \u201cTexas Matters<\/a>\u201d shows.<\/p>\n \u201cI was arguing that we needed not just local news, but local news that served our specific slice of the community,\u201d he said. \u201cNot only are we going to tell San Antonio stories but we\u2019re going to tell San Antonio stories to the nations of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n So he\u2019s \u201cjoyful\u201d about what the partnership with the Report brings to TPR and San Antonio. \u201cThis is going to be complete news without a paywall, which I really love, to the entirety of our community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Ken Rodriguez is a senior features writer for the Report and also unit council chairman of the San Antonio Report Union. The San Antonio Report\u00a0unionized under the Media Guild of the West<\/a>\u00a0in 2024 and signed a contract in 2025. <\/p>\n TPR has voluntarily recognized the union. Though the union\u2019s\u00a0contract\u00a0expired\u00a0July 1,\u00a0this week Rodriguez said the union signed a memorandum of understanding that adds some of\u00a0the union\u2019s contract\u00a0tenets to the original TPR employment offers, in anticipation of a new contract to be negotiated in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n Texas Public Radio also unionized in 2024<\/a>, but is still in the process of negotiating a contract.<\/p>\n Consolidation trend<\/p>\n Informal talks between TPR and the Report over combining forces go back at least eight years, Rivard said. His view is that it\u2019s a financially smart move to make in the current nonprofit media landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m all for it, because I think consolidation in general is a trend that we\u2019re going to see all across the nonprofit world, and I think we\u2019re definitely going to see it in media, because it\u2019s hard to raise money for media,\u201d versus causes that support children or basic needs in a struggling economy, he said.<\/p>\n The number of nonprofit news organizations in the U.S. has grown substantially in the last decade or so, and in recent years, some have joined forces as funding dwindled and business models were reshaped.<\/p>\n In addition to the LAist merger, the member-supported Denverite<\/a> combined with Colorado Public Radio in 2019 when CPR acquired the online news site from parent company, Spirited Media.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SanAntonioReportParty_SARBirthdayCelebration_Fourteenth14thAnniversary_StaffBoard_11_02.18.2026_Ambe.jpeg\")
The San Antonio Report newsroom staff and board of directors celebrated 14 years of publication at its Travis Park office in downtown San Antonio on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TexasPublicRadio_SanAntonioReport_NewsInTheMaking_OperationsCombination01_07.01.2026_AmberEsparza.jp.jpeg\")
Texas Public Radio Board Chair Alan Kramer greets members and staff of the San Antonio Report and Texas Public Radio at TPR\u2019s TPR\u2019s Mal\u00fa\u00a0and Carlos Alvarez\u00a0Theater\u00a0during a celebration event on Thursday. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/download-1.jpeg\")
The Irma & Emilio Nicolas Media Center. Credit: Texas Public Radio<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TexasPublicRadio_SanAntonioReport_NewsInTheMaking_OperationsCombination02_07.01.2026_AmberEsparza.jp.jpeg\")
Ashley Alvarado, president and CEO of Texas Public Radio, is joined by San Antonio Report Editor in Chief Leigh Munsil during a celebration event at TPR\u2019s Mal\u00fa\u00a0and Carlos Alvarez\u00a0Theater on Thursday. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Great-Debate_jn_26.jpg\")
San Antonio Report Editor in Chief Leigh Munsil listens to Former San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai during the Bexar County Judge debate hosted by the San Antonio Report, the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce and Tech Bloc at Stable Hall at the Pearl on Feb. 10, 2026. Credit: Jo E. Norris for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TexasPublicRadio_SanAntonioReport_NewsInTheMaking_OperationsCombination06_07.01.2026_AmberEsparza.jp.jpeg\")
Texas Public Radio\u2019s News Director Dan Katz, left, and Steve Short, TPR\u2019s All Things Considered Host, chat with staff members of the San Antonio Report during a TPR building tour on Thursday. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SmallBusinessAdministration_USSBA_St.PhilipsCollege_VeteranSupportServices_America25024_06.12.2026_A.jpeg\")
San Antonio Report Senior Politics Reporter Andrea Drusch interviews U.S.\u00a0Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler during her visit to San Antonio for the grand opening of the Good Samaritan Veterans Outreach and Transition Center at St. Philip\u2019s College on June 12, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/joe-bw-standing-w-mic-in-studio-original-tv-copy.jpg\")
Joe Gwathmey guided a restructuring of the parent organizations licensed to operate KPAC and KSTX that resulted in the creation of the new nonprofit corporation, Texas Public Radio. Credit: Courtesy \/ Texas Public Radio<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TexasPublicRadio_SanAntonioReport_NewsInTheMaking_OperationsCombination05_07.01.2026_AmberEsparza.jp.jpeg\")
Texas Public Radio News Managing Editor Yvette Benavides chats with staff members of the San Antonio Report during a TPR building tour on Thursday. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ScottBall_rivard-report-san-antonio-report-namechange-name-logo-126-gonzales-robert-rivard-8-7-2020-.jpeg\"){kind=logo}
Then editor and publisher Robert Rivard stands outside the St. Paul Square offices of the newly renamed San Antonio Report, formerly the Rivard Report, in 2020. Credit: Scott Ball \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n