Two of San Antonio’s largest nonprofit news organizations are joining forces in a move they say will strengthen local journalism and help them adapt to a rapidly changing media landscape.
Texas Public Radio and the San Antonio Report announced Tuesday that they will combine operations beginning July 1, allowing the organizations to share resources while continuing to publish through their separate websites and other platforms.
“This is going to be the largest nonprofit newsroom that San Antonio has ever seen,” said Dan Katz, news director at TPR. “Combining forces is going to allow us to better live up to the ideals of public media journalism, coverage that's rooted in public service and centered on people and communities.”
This comes after San Antonio Report board members on Monday unanimously voted to donate that organization’s assets to Texas Public Radio, according to TPR. For now, Katz said the two newsrooms — which together employ about 30 staff members — “will continue operating separately while collaborating more closely.”
The organizations are working on a long-term integration plan, which could include rebranding. According to Angie Mock, publisher and CEO of the San Antonio Report, the partnership will create a local news “powerhouse” with a greater ability to cover the San Antonio community.
“We're going to be able to tell more stories and continue providing reporting that's not behind a paywall,” Mock said. “That's pretty special for a community our size.”
As part of the partnership, the organizations say they’ve raised $1.4 million from local donors and philanthropic groups to support expanded digital operations and strengthen reporting capacity.
The partnership comes as nonprofit and public media organizations nationwide face growing financial pressure. Earlier this year, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting voted to dissolve after Congress rescinded more than $1 billion in federal funding for NPR and PBS in 2025.
That funding loss has put more than 80% of the nation’s “news deserts” at risk of losing access to local coverage, according to a 2025 State of Local News report from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. The report also found that nearly 3,500 newspapers had closed in the U.S. since 2005, including about half of Texas newspapers.
Amid those broader industry struggles, the newly announced partnership signals the future of local news, according to Tim Franklin, chair in local news at Northwestern University.
“I think these news organizations realize that they’re stronger together,” Franklin said. “They can reach larger audiences, it increases their potential for fundraising and it also expands the number of eyeballs on their content.”
Franklin said collaborations can sometimes create brand confusion among audiences, though Mock said the organizations are taking a measured approach as they move forward.
“We've already done some pretty significant market analysis for San Antonio and the surrounding areas. We want to dig deeper into that data,” Mock said. “Ultimately, all that data will guide our branding decision.”
Those potential branding decisions will be made later. Over the coming months, Katz said the organizations will be focused on designing the “newsroom of the future,” an effort they hope will help the organizations to deepen and expand local reporting in San Antonio.
“For us in public media, we've always had high ideals, but it is difficult to cover all of those things when you have limited resources,” Katz said. “This is going to allow us to have more steady coverage.”
Note: This story was reported by The Texas Newsroom’s Lucio Vasquez and edited by Corrie MacLaggan, executive editor of KUT News and The Texas Newsroom. No executives from TPR or the San Antonio Report reviewed this story before publication.