• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 11, 2024

Journalists are learning that their jobs are no more secure with nonprofit employers than they are with corporate ones. 

On Monday, the local title Houston Landing dispensed with the services of Mizanur Rahman, founding editor in chief, and Alex Stuckey, investigative reporter. 

This prompted an outraged letter from the staff. 

“Monday’s actions blindsided us,” they wrote. “Nothing in the Landing’s performance, to date, appears to justify terminating two senior, trusted and well-respected members of the newsroom.”

They added that they are also “reeling from the decision to cut Maggie Gordon’s column, which has repeatedly exceeded editorial benchmarks for success.” 

Managing editor John Tedesco is to serve as interim editor in chief. 

CEO Peter Bhatia is not a nonprofit executive — he’s a veteran editor and journalist. He claims that the five-person nonprofit board of the Landing had nothing to do with his decision.

So why did he do it? “It is my belief that we need new ideas to execute our mission…effectively in the digital space,” Bhatia told NiemanLab. “Our coverage needs to be more original, distinctive and not available elsewhere.”

Tedesco told Bhatia he disagreed with the firings, according to NiemanLab.

For his part, Rahman posted, “Today I woke up without a job for the first time since I was 17. And I felt very fortunate becuse this is the first time I have been through this. I know there are so many people who have also lost jobs for one reason or another and worried about paying the bills."

The Landing has been around for about six months. It started with seed funding that included $7.5 million each from the Houston Endowment and the Kinder Foundation; $4 million from Arnold Ventures; $1.5 million from the American Journalism Project; and $250,000 from the Knight Foundation, according to NiemanLab.