MJC Report: Challenges and opportunities around reaching and engaging with news audiences through public events

By meagan doll Benjamin Toff Cydney Grannan
Minnesota Journalism Center Research Report

Amid declining trust in news and heightened concerns over misinformation, news organizations are increasingly seeking new ways to connect with audiences and build loyalty among segments of the public who are otherwise disengaged. Among these efforts are both in-person and virtual events, including public listening sessions, topical panels, and other forms of what are sometimes referred to as “live journalism” events. Although news outlets may have varying reasons for hosting public events, these activities are typically centered around showcasing the value of a news organization’s contributions to a community beyond the content they publish or broadcast.

This report is part of an ongoing project of the Minnesota Journalism Center in partnership with the nonprofit Alliance for Trust in Media to explore the effectiveness and impact of varying initiatives that news organizations are adopting to bridge gaps in trust in news and reach audiences who are increasingly alienated from news or avoiding it altogether.

This particular study focuses on public events hosted by news organizations. We focus here on the experience of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit news outlet based in Austin, Texas, who we recently partnered with on three separate research projects thanks in part as well to a grant from the Google News Initiative. The Tribune is an industry leader in the practice of hosting news organization-sponsored events, which makes them a particularly valuable case study for understanding how news organizations' engagement initiatives are perceived by the publics they target, with implications for U.S. newsrooms and beyond.

Table of contents

• Key takeaways
• 1. Who attends public events?
• 2. Why do people attend public events?
• 3. How do people evaluate their experiences attending?
• Implications for newsrooms

A primary focus of this work involved understanding the type of individuals who attend Texas Tribune events, their reasons for attending, and what they took away from their experiences engaging with the Tribune in this way. To do this, we fielded a survey of individuals who attended at least one event the prior year and conducted additional follow-up interviews with a smaller group of individuals who indicated a willingness to talk to researchers more in-depth about their experiences. These interviews allowed us to better understand audience participation in and perceptions of Texas Tribune events, with significance for news organizations interested in developing engagement strategies of their own. 

About the study

We fielded an online survey of individuals who attended at least one of more than 20 public events hosted by The Texas Tribune between January 2024 and February 2025. The survey was sent to more than 3,800 attendees using an email list provided by the news organization. Just over 300 individuals completed the survey questionnaire. Respondents who completed the survey were eligible to opt in to a lottery to receive a $200 gift card as compensation for their time completing the survey. No personally identifying information was collected nor shared with the news organization beyond aggregate descriptive statistics of the final results.

Concurrently, the survey was used as an opportunity to recruit a subset of these same individuals for in-depth interviews to better understand their experiences with and perceptions of the events they attended and its impact on their attitudes toward The Texas Tribune. Those who agreed to sit for a follow-up interview, each of which typically lasted around 45 minutes to an hour, were compensated with $50 electronic gift cards. Interview questions assessed individuals’ motivations for attending their respective event, perceptions of the event’s purpose, perceptions of the news organization’s goals, as well as to what extent their expectations of the experience were met. 

We conducted a total of 21 in-depth interviews using a video conferencing platform between February and April 2025. The study design was reviewed and approved by the University of Minnesota Institutional Review Board. In this report, where individuals are quoted, we have used pseudonyms to ensure we maintain the confidentiality of study participants’ identities.

More about Texas Tribune events

The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit digital-first news organization headquartered in Austin, Texas, and founded in 2009, covers civic and political stories from across the state of Texas. Tribune content is available for free on its website, and the organization is a prominent member of the Institute for Nonprofit News. The Tribune receives about 3.5 million unique visitors to its website each month with roughly 33% of those visitors accessing news from Texas and 83% of Texan visitors residing in major metropolitan areas, according to 2022 Tribune analytics. Financially, the Tribune is member-supported and accepts donations from a range of corporate, philanthropic, and private donors. These funders likewise help to sponsor various Tribune events and public panels, the largest of these being the annual Texas Tribune Festival, popularly known as TribFest. TribFest features conversations with public officials and journalists from around the country on topics like politics, education, energy, and health care. In 2024, the event gathered more than 300 speakers and approximately 6,000 attendees.

Beyond TribFest, the Tribune has become an industry leader in the practice of hosting public-facing events. About half of such events take place in the Austin metropolitan area and are hosted physically at the Tribune’s Studio 919, though events also take place at alternative Austin-area locales (e.g., University of Texas) as well as more than a dozen cities across the state. This includes a range of urban and more rural locations, such as Dallas, Houston, El Paso, Odessa, and Tyler, as illustrated in the accompanying figure. Nearly all events are livestreamed with a virtual viewing option. 

Texas Tribune events cover a range of topics. The events hosted between 2024 and 2025 addressed issues related to free speech on college campuses, faith in public life, urban downtowns, health care challenges, and workforce needs. These events also vary in structure, including conversations with lawmakers, cross-sector roundtable discussions, and reporter-led previews of elections and legislative sessions, as well as day-long symposia comprising multiple sessions.

In addition to covering a variety of topics and geographies, Texas Tribune events are made possible through the support of many different sponsors. Sponsors range from nonprofit organizations (e.g., Texas Association of Community Colleges; Lone Star Coastal Alliance) to foundations (e.g., Houston Endowment; Henry Luce Foundation) to corporations (e.g., Walmart; CenterPoint Energy). These sponsors are recognized at the bottom of each event page, respectively, as well as acknowledged at in-person events in various ways. Beyond financial support, some events include “host sponsors” or partners recognized for providing space, logistics, or other publicity alongside the Tribune’s communication efforts. 

Key takeaways

In general, we found that events may be more effective as a strategy for deepening engagement with existing audiences than as a tool for expanding the organizations’ reach with new audiences, at least without making a concerted effort toward partnering with third-party organizations or focusing on topics likely to appeal outside the organizations’ loyal followers. Those attending Texas Tribune events were typically much less diverse than the population of the state as a whole and especially politically interested and engaged already with news and journalism. Many were also much more liberal politically than the state as a whole, but interested in the nonpartisan nature of the events.

• Events appear to be a useful strategy for deepening engagement with already engaged groups, less clearly a tool for broadening the reach of the organization. Almost all event attendees who completed the survey identified as frequent news consumers and said they generally trusted news in general—and The Texas Tribune specifically. At the same time, less than half (46%) said they were Tribune members, indicating potential opportunities for building future loyalty. 
• Most who attended events evaluated their experiences positively. Overwhelmingly survey respondents said they would recommend events to others, and in some cases they said they financially contributed to the organization as a consequence of their attending public events.
• Event attendees were much less diverse and far more educated compared with the state as a whole. Although we found a wide range of age groups represented among attendees and an even divide by gender, most attendees were white and overwhelmingly college-educated. More than six-in-ten held graduate or professional degrees in a state where only 13% of the population over 25 years old otherwise does. 
• Most were highly interested in politics and skewed to the left. Not surprisingly given the topical focus of many events, 84% of attendees described themselves as “extremely” or “very” interested in politics. A majority (57%) also identified as Democrats compared with just 10% who said they were Republicans. At the same time, in interviews many said they were particularly interested in ideologically balanced discussions and valued what they perceived as a space for civil dialogue across party lines.
• Event topics mattered a great deal, but events also provided an opportunity for connection within communities that many said they were looking for. Most said they attended because they were interested in the specific topics or speakers, which were closely related to the sectors they worked in. Indeed, many said attending was useful to them professionally. At the same time, others described appreciating the bipartisan nature of events as spaces to engage in civil dialogue about important political matters with people from different political perspectives at a time in which they felt they did not have many avenues for otherwise doing so.
• Convening events offers a potential mechanism for communicating a news organization’s distinct brand identity and value, but reaching new audiences through events may be challenging. At a time in which competition for digital attention is immense, public events offer a way for news organizations to put their approach to journalism on display in an accessible and approachable manner while standing out from alternative offerings in a crowded information environment. However, reaching audiences through events beyond those who are already engaged may require strategic partnerships, distinct topic or speaker selections, and more sustained ongoing follow-through from the organization that continues to serve these audience needs. 

1. Who attends public events?

Based on our survey data, we know that those who attended Texas Tribune events during the time period of our study were much less diverse and far more educated than the population as a whole. Most were highly interested in politics and news and an overwhelming majority were already trusting toward the organization to begin with. At the same time, less than half were Texas Tribune “members” at the time they completed the survey, illustrating opportunities that may exist for deepening connection with audiences who attend events.

Although by no means monolithic, these data provide a window into the social characteristics of those who are represented – and less well represented – at such gatherings. Moreover, the uniformity of these attributes illuminates the challenges that news organizations face when using public events as a strategy for expanding the reach of their journalism.

A range of age groups but demographically lacking in diversity

Past attendees who completed the survey were roughly evenly split by gender and represented a relatively diverse age range, with about three-quarters of respondents falling between the ages of 35 to 74. This broad age distribution may be relatively welcome information for news organizations and researchers, who have long raised concerns around young adults turning away from journalism and news audiences becoming increasingly older. That said, the youngest cohort of adult respondents — those 18 to 24 years old — make up just 3% of those who participated in our survey. 

Overall, we saw less variation in terms of past attendees' racial backgrounds and educational trajectories. With respect to race, more than 80% of respondents were white or caucasian, with no other racial category (Black or African American, Native American, Asian, Other) rising above 5% in the sample. About a quarter of participants reported Hispanic, Spanish, or Latino heritage, even as recent U.S. Census Bureau data suggest that Hispanics and Latinos now make up the largest demographic group in Texas (40%). 

In terms of education, event attendees were also highly educated, with more than 91% of respondents holding at least a bachelor's degree and nearly two-thirds (63%) indicating that they held graduate or professional degrees (e.g., MBA, PhD, JD). Recent estimates from the U.S. Census show that only 13% of Texans over 25 years old hold a graduate or professional degree.

Politically involved and particularly liberal 

Of those who completed the survey, past event attendees were also highly interested in politics and skewed overwhelmingly to the left ideologically. The vast majority (84%) indicated that they were “very” or “extremely” interested in politics, and just one respondent out of more than 300 who completed the survey said they were “not very interested” in politics. While there is polling to suggest that a majority of U.S. adults indeed say they follow politics, particularly around major election periods, past event attendees appeared particularly engaged and these numbers suggest event attendees were more so than the public at large. On the other hand, a recent survey from the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project found that registered voters in the state were generally highly interested in politics, with just 4% saying they were not at all interested.

With respect to political identity, the majority of survey respondents (57%) also aligned with the Democratic Party, as depicted in the corresponding chart. Just 10% identified as Republican, with the remainder saying they were either independents or unsure of their party identification. For context, this is a state that voted 56% to 42% for Donald Trump in 2024.

Highly engaged with and trusting toward news and journalism 

In addition to being highly involved politically, those who completed the survey were also fairly homogenous with respect to their news consumption habits and attitudes toward journalism more broadly. More than 9  in 10 reported consuming news at least once a day with more than three-quarters saying that they accessed news more frequently than twice a day. This is notable given global trends toward increased news avoidance in the general public in recent decades. Online news websites were the most popular medium by which participants received their news. 

Additionally, past attendees were fairly trusting of news content, though not unconditionally. For example, just 9% of survey respondents reported “complete trust” in information from the news generally speaking, with many more (66%) indicating that they were somewhat trusting toward news in general. This perspective, what has sometimes been described as “selective trust,” was summed up succinctly by one survey respondent who wrote, “I know I trust some sources quite a bit, I distrust some quite a bit, and I am aware that some sources are in no way, shape, or form journalists.”

Trust toward The Texas Tribune specifically was significantly higher, with the overwhelming majority of respondents saying they trust information reported by the Tribune at least somewhat or completely. At the same time, event attendees were not exclusively already members of the organization. Less than half (46%) said they were members of the Tribune at the time of the survey, which suggests there may be opportunities to deepen connections among this population of event attendees to convert these audiences into even more loyal supporters.

Finally, the questionnaire also asked past event attendees about the extent to which they had interacted with professional journalists or the news industry prior to attending an event hosted by The Texas Tribune. Of those who responded to the survey, two-thirds (66%) said they knew a journalist personally, and nearly as many (64%) said they had been interviewed by a journalist. Just under half (48%) said they had contacted a journalist with feedback at least once. In representative surveys in the U.S., between 10-15% of the general public report having had such experiences themselves.

Together, the relatively high levels of news engagement and trust observed in this sample suggest that those attending Texas Tribune events — and perhaps similar gatherings hosted by other news organizations — are attracting a particular subset of politically aware, highly engaged, and relatively trusting segment of the American public. These audiences also skew more politically liberal than the general population, although these results may not generalize to other news organizations. These findings hold implications for how we understand the impact and reach of such events, which we discuss in part four of this report.

2. Why do people attend public events?

In addition to understanding the types of people who attended Texas Tribune events, our study of the audience for live journalism events also explored individuals’ motivations for attending. Of those in our sample, about a third of respondents had attended more than one event, though more than two-thirds (68%) had attended just one Tribune event at the time of the survey. That suggests the important role played by specific event characteristics in attracting different audience segments to turn out.

In general, we find that event attendees were drawn to Tribune events for a variety of reasons — some political, others social, and some pertaining to a desire to support or connect with the news organization itself. When we delved more deeply into people’s reasons for attending during follow-up in-depth interviews, we found that study participants generally emphasized at least one of two primary motivations for attending with many discussing both. These motivations included (1) the draw of specific topics or speakers, in many cases in ways that related to one’s professional work; and (2) the promise of ideologically balanced discussions, often based on preexisting perceptions of The Texas Tribune. 

A mix of factors

In the survey we conducted, individuals reported many different motivations for attending, spanning everything from venue convenience to engaging with one’s community. The most popular factors that respondents said influenced their decision to attend included those that pertained to the subject matter of the events themselves. The vast majority (90%) said the “event topic” mattered “a lot” or “a great deal” in motivating their turning out for the event, while an additional 79% said they wanted to “learn something new.” Nearly three-quarters (72%) said the location and time of the event mattered for “a lot” or “a great deal” for them. 

Six in ten (61%) said they were motivated to attend because they wanted to “engage more with my community,” while just under half (47%) said showing support for The Texas Tribune itself mattered a lot or a great deal in influencing their decision to attend. 

A smaller third (33%) said that invitations from “a coworker, friend, or family” influenced their attendance, while the least popular response was a desire to “learn more about journalism.” 

The importance of topic and speaker

We heard more varied explanations for why people decided to attend in-person events in the course of the follow-up interviews we conducted with attendees. When prompted to elaborate on their own reasons, many typically emphasized how much the specific topics and guests motivated their own decision to attend. Respondents referenced the “salience of the topics” discussed at the events they attended and were keen to attend for this reason, particularly when the issue at hand was “very specific to the industries [they] cared about,” as one study participant put it. In fact, many highlighted the importance of event topics as it related to their jobs or careers as a major factor motivating why they attended Texas Tribune events.

“I would say the primary driving factor [for attendance] would be topic. If it’s an area that intersects with my personal interests, then I’ll attend.” 
— Ethan, 35-44, Houston

Topic salience cuts both ways, with some interviewees emphasizing that they also regularly ignored events that they did not find particularly relevant to their lives as well. Ricardo (45-55, Austin), who works in higher education, explained that he would typically attend where “the focus is going to be on higher education or public education,” but where the topic was unrelated (for example, transportation), he was much less likely to pay attention. “Again, not because I don't care about those issues, but they're not necessarily top of mind.”

Related to the event topic, participants also highlighted the draw of specific speakers. For many, this included the opportunity to hear from elected officials, as one interviewee explained:

“I was reading a Texas Tribune article and there was something that came up and said, ‘Hey, there's going to be an event in San Antonio with State Senator José Menéndez.’ And I was like, I like Jose Menendez. So yeah, any symposium that's featuring him, count me in.” 
— Wyatt, 35-44, San Antonio 

In other cases, past attendees knew event speakers personally or were familiar with them through a professional capacity at work. A public health official remembered attending an event in which a panelist was a same-sector colleague she had worked with closely. She shared:

“He is very much an individual that I respect and know well and wanted to hear his perspective. … The decision to participate in that event was because of the speakers and some connections there. I probably would have tuned in to that even if they were talking about saltines versus cheese.” 
— Jennifer, 35-44, Dallas

Creating a space for civil dialogue across party lines

Likely specific to The Texas Tribune’s branding as a nonpartisan, politically focused news organization, many participants also described a strong motivation for attending Tribune events related to a desire to be in a space where they might be exposed to ideologically balanced discussions. This was true even though a majority of event attendees, as we found in our survey, were themselves aligned with the Democratic Party in particular. Despite the ideological skew of the audiences, many said they expected and were interested in being part of an event that would feature a range of perspectives from across the political spectrum.

The presumption that Texas Tribune events would feature such perspectives derived primarily from participants’ preexisting perceptions of Texas Tribune content. As one interviewee put it, balanced storytelling was something he had seen produced by the Texas Tribune, resulting in “very fair, very honest reporting and very, very good coverage” (Roman, 55-64, El Paso). 

Further illustrating this broad expectation, several other respondents mentioned that they anticipated receiving “diversity of opinions and thoughts” as well as a “clear, overall picture of what’s going on.” 

Even for those who may be critical of The Texas Tribune at times, there was a shared sense that its content — and events, by extension — would be characterized by integrity and balance. As another interview respondent explained:

“I’ve seen the Tribune even be critical of its own donors, and that kind of builds confidence that they’re trying to do what they can. I don’t agree with all of their opinion perspectives, but that’s natural.” 
—Ethan, 35-44, Houston

Relatedly, attendees praised events for covering seemingly tough topics. Lilly (35-44) said she was surprised that The Texas Tribune convened a conversation on climate change in Corpus Christi, a city with a large oil-industry presence. She described the “political feel” of the city as very conservative, adding that “for them to be talking about climate change, I think that was the first time that I’d seen it.”

These perceptions are particularly notable given that a number of attendees also said they tended to avoid political discussions in the course of daily life. When asked whether interviewees discussed news topics with those closest to them, many were quick to qualify these interactions. For example: “It depends on the room I'm in, so to speak… There are people that I know not to talk about politics with because we're not on the same side of the coin” (Fern, 65-74, Austin). In contrast, many saw Texas Tribune events as creating a space for civil dialogue about politics they did not always find elsewhere. As Ethan (35-44, Houston) said, Tribune events were seen as “an opportunity to speak to other attendance members [with] an assumption that the rest of the attendees are level-headed and rational.” 

Based on these accounts, most respondents went into their first event experiences motivated by personal interest in specific topics, speakers, and/or nonpartisan conversations. These expectations were themselves motivated in many cases by previous interactions with or perceptions of Texas Tribune reporting and content. As one interview respondent summarized succinctly: “I really didn't do any research. I just assumed because it was The Texas Tribune that they were going to have quality individuals and individuals who knew what they were talking about” (Tomas, 45-54, Waco). 

3. How do people evaluate their experience attending?

In this section, we consider the impact of attending public events at least as described by those who agreed to participate in our study, which we acknowledge may be skewed toward those who were most enthusiastic about their own attendance. Nonetheless, these data offer valuable insights into how people evaluated the events they attended and what they felt they got from these experiences. We are also interested in understanding more generally how attending public events affects people’s attitudes toward the news organization itself. 

While study participants generally reported very positive attitudes about their experiences attending, we highlight three areas in particular that event attendees said stood out to them as aspects of their experiences. Specifically participants indicated that they valued Texas Tribune events as (1) forums for connecting with others interested in specific issue areas, including high-profile guests and public officials and as (2) sites for bipartisan discussions in an increasingly polarized world. Many also said they appreciated the extent to which events were (3) enjoyable productions characterized by thoughtful interactions and logistics. 

All three dimensions help to underscore the extent to which public events may help news organizations serve audience needs in ways that extend beyond information transmission — namely providing audiences with an outlet for connecting with others in their communities — while also helping to convey a distinct brand identity.

A generally positive experience as a mechanism for deepening loyalty 

Participants said they were indeed very satisfied with their experience attending Texas Tribune events. More than 6 in 10 respondents rated their experience attending Texas Tribune events a 9 or a 10 on a 10-point scale, and none of the respondents offered a score below 5.

Most similarly reported a willingness and desire to attend future Tribune events as well as recommend events to a friend or colleague. More than three-quarters of survey respondents indicated that they were “extremely likely” to attend future events as well as “extremely likely” to recommend Texas Tribune events to a friend or colleague. 

In interviews, many study participants made this connection explicitly and saw their positive event attendance influencing their feelings toward the organization itself and a desire to continue engaging with its reporting.

“I do remember that [the event] did increase my interest in being informed by the reports and the coverage of The Texas Tribune.” 
— Roman, 55-64, El Paso

Event satisfaction remained high regardless of the location of the event as well as one’s personal political ideology. We found few significant differences in satisfaction across event types or audience segments, although the size of our sample limits this type of analysis.

As we noted in an earlier section, most event attendees were not members of the Tribune. In some cases, however, interviewees mentioned that their positive experience attending events did tip the scale in favor of financial contribution because they valued the events and the unique experiences they offered community members beyond the organization’s reporting.

“You know, I've become a [donor] because of their events. And that's not something that's normal for me. … I don't give a lot, but I do give, because I would hate to see something like that go away.” 
— Linda, 45-54, Austin

A forum for connecting

Past event attendees had the opportunity to expand on these attitudes through both open-ended survey questions as well as in-depth interviews following survey participation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, individuals’ reported satisfaction appeared to be connected to many of the expectations they reported having going into the experience. 

With respect to the former, many event attendees praised The Texas Tribune for their relevance in terms of the topics they chose to cover as well as their ability to attract high-profile speakers engaged in solving pressing societal issues. As one survey respondent said, Texas Tribune events provide “the ability to engage with issues… far more thoroughly than through typical news media alone and from the mouths of the implementers themselves.” 

Attendees applauded The Texas Tribune’s efforts to feature public officials in particular, as a way to put “those in power in touch with those they represent.” 

Beyond high-profile guests, participants also highlighted the importance of interacting with other audience members. For some, “networking with others in the community interested in the same issue areas” actually led to lasting collaborations. One interviewee described the experience of applying for a grant after meeting a local foundation representative at a Texas Tribune event:

“My boss went up when it was time for questions… And when she came to sit back down, this lady from the next county over started chatting her up. And she's like, ‘I want to talk to you.’ And then we made a connection. And now I think we're applying for a grant with them.” 
— Andrea, 25-34, San Antonio 

Sites for bipartisan discussion

In addition to social interaction around shared interests, participants emphasized Texas Tribune events as sites of bipartisan discussion. One survey respondent summarized this experience saying: 

“I appreciated the general attempt to gather speakers from across the political spectrum. Even though I strongly disagreed with some of the panelists, it is still important to know what they believe.” 
— Anonymous survey respondent

For many participants, this perspective is made more salient by perceived political polarization across the country and in the state of Texas, in particular. “The political polarization in this state means the public has left very few opportunities to hear from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle,” explained a different survey respondent. 

“I liked the welcoming atmosphere where everyone, Democrats and Republicans, felt they could converse with each other with civility and genuine curiosity.” 
— Michelle, 35-44, Austin

Some event attendees recounted interactions they had with other audience members, who they perceived as holding divergent political beliefs. This is an important aspect of the experience for many, including one anonymous survey respondent who shared: “I enjoyed meeting people who thought differently from me so I could learn more.” 

A demonstration of professionalism and brand identity

Without prompting, many study participants also expressed a specific appreciation for the thoughtful and professional manner in which Texas Tribune events were organized and carried out. In open-ended survey questions, event attendees praised Texas Tribune events as “well-structured,” “well-produced,” and “convenient” and remarked on the general ease of attending. 

“It was obvious to me that the planning and execution of the event was carefully curated in all aspects.” 
— Anonymous survey respondent

This attention to detail included, for many, balanced efforts to moderate discussions with one respondent explaining that moderators “always really dive into the issues and ask real follow-up questions.”

Similar sentiments were likewise reflected in interviews with event attendees. Specifically, one respondent reported that they would be more likely to “check [The Texas Tribune] out” following the event and “be more attuned to things that come across [their] feed or emails.” With respect to attending future events, another interview participant agreed saying: 

“I would definitely be interested in seeing more of that. I'm impressed by a media organization wanting to do something like that in a different way.” 
— Lilly, 35-44, Corpus Christi 

To be sure, some event attendees did have constructive feedback for the organization. Where participants identified room for improvement, the most common call was for more pragmatic recommendations and additional follow-up contact after the event. For one respondent who attended an event focused on rural healthcare, they were looking for more “practical steps to improve healthcare in [their] community.” Relatedly, past attendees recommended that event organizers carve out time to introduce those in attendance around the room or perhaps offer structured pre- or post-event networking for in-person attendees to better “digest and converse about what [they] just heard.” A separate interview participant picked up on this same idea:

“It was one of those things where I wish everyone had stayed or we had more time for questions because the wheels started turning… So even if there was a way for us to continue networking or know who all attended the event.” 
— Mandy, 25-34, Tyler 

Given the level of enthusiasm that many event attendees expressed about their experiences attending public Tribune events, many also shared an interest in keeping the energy of these events alive and were looking to the organization to help facilitate that.

Implications for newsrooms

This report explored the profile of individuals who previously attended public events organized by one nonprofit news organization, The Texas Tribune, as well as their stated reasons for attending and perceptions about what they gained from attending. As news organizations across the U.S. grapple with declining audience engagement and trust, many are looking to new avenues for connecting with audiences across an ever-changing digital media landscape of fractured news audiences. 

What can news organizations learn from these insights? We outline three key takeaways from this research. Although these insights are specific to the Texas Tribune case study, we seek to highlight considerations drawn from our findings that have implications for any news organization interested in hosting similar public-facing events.

Specific topics and speakers drive attendance, but social interaction and specific community needs remain important motivators 

For many study participants, the reason they cited for attending events pertained especially to the subject matter events covered. Many saw public events as an opportunity to network and learn about alternative perspectives, especially as it related to their jobs and professional lives. Given that Tribune events were overwhelmingly political in their focus, it is therefore perhaps not surprising that most event attendees were also highly interested and involved in politics. That does mean, however, that events tended to attract a far less diverse audience than the population as a whole. Efforts to broaden the reach of the Tribune through public events may require expanding the range of topics covered by events and partnerships with organizations outside of the conventional civic and political organizations and speakers that are generally the focus of these convenings.

It is also worth noting that although attendees identified as Democrats rather than Republicans by a nearly six-to-one margin, many also said they specifically valued events as bipartisan spaces for discussing pressing societal issues without the threat of partisan sparring. Study participants often described these events as reprieves from the polarization of day-to-day political discussions, with many reportedly avoiding such conversations outside these forums. This is closely aligned with the Tribune’s brand as a nonpartisan organization that seeks to cover Texas politics in an impartial manner, so it is perhaps not surprising that its audience valued events in this particular way. That said, in a state where people may feel either siloed or isolated in partisan bubbles, what we heard in our interviews and expressed in the survey was a demand for spaces that enable communicating across different perspectives that many felt they did not have access to elsewhere in their everyday lives. 

What may be most relevant here is not that all news organization events should be similarly bipartisan — indeed it is not altogether clear that most should even necessarily be about politics — but that events meet existing community needs and fill gaps where audiences feel they are missing access to spaces for such connections. Different places and different news organizations may find success in convening different types of events, but if events do not seek to address those existing community’s needs, they are unlikely to attract a crowd.

Public events offer an opportunity for deepening engagement with core audiences

Those who attend public events hosted by The Texas Tribune generally reported very positive experiences. For this reason, news organization-sponsored events may indeed represent some hope for fostering deeper engagement between the public and news organizations. Although attendees were generally already fairly loyal and trusting toward the organization, most were not (yet) regular financial contributors, which suggests there is room for further cultivating connection with these audiences and using events as a mechanism for doing so. It is impossible to generalize on the basis of our sample about what percentage of event attendees might go on to become financial supporters of an organization as a result of attending, but some interviewees did report doing so, and we have no reason to believe that such responses are an isolated experience or outlandish possibility based on the levels of enthusiasm communicated by our sample. 

Our findings also suggest reasons why public events may be effective tools for deepening audience engagement. Many described ways in which events crystallized aspects of the Tribune’s branding including its commitments to nonpartisanship and professionalism, while simultaneously offering attendees with a valuable space to connect to others in their community and to subject matter leaders and experts. In that sense, public events may serve as a potent communication tool for news organizations that seek to break through a competitive information environment to establish their relevance and value to communities at a time in which the digital environment may make that undertaking particularly challenging. Public events help remind audiences how an individual news organization stands out from alternatives and what their journalists do for communities that other entities on social media or beyond may not.

There are clear limits around using public events as an engagement tool

Our findings do suggest, however, that even as public events may be an effective way of deepening engagement with some audiences, there may be a ceiling effect to doing so at least insofar as the particular events we studied seemed mainly to attract those who are already interested in news and politics. Given that showing up in person to a public gathering requires a significant investment of time and, in some cases, resources for travel and parking, by definition such events are likely to be of interest primarily to a select group of generally more advantaged segments of the public.

Using events then as a tool for appealing to and reaching new or alternative audiences will likely require very intentional efforts to strategize around topics, speakers, locations, and/or partnerships that are likely to be more visible, accessible, and engaging to such groups. The editorial focus of events must also align with what news organizations generally offer these audiences for events to succeed in building and sustaining an ongoing relationship with these groups. For example, while introducing a greater number of events that are not directly related to politics, that are hosted outside of predominantly metropolitan areas, or that involve partnering with trusted community organizations may expand the range of potential audiences in the room, such events may not be successful in attracting ongoing engagement from these groups if it is not met with sufficient follow-through from the organization around serving these audiences through their journalism. It is not inconceivable that insufficient follow-through in this way could even backfire.

To be sure, hosting public events is unlikely to be a silver bullet for solving audience engagement, but as this report suggests for organizations like The Texas Tribune, events may be one of many strategies that help advance specific audience engagement goals but they may also be poorly suited for advancing others. We recommend that news organizations interested in hosting public events first identify how events fit into their overall audience strategy and design them from the bottom up — considering these particular groups’ needs and interests — rather than conceiving of them first and foremost as tools for showcasing their organization’s journalism. Yes, events may be an effective forum for communicating what defines a news organization’s unique identity and value to a community’s ecosystem, but they are most likely to attract an already loyal and engaged audience.

As this report also shows, it is also critically important to continually assess which audiences events are reaching as well as how those attendees ascribe value to them. Such insights not only assist in aligning expectations for news organizations and event participants, but ultimately help direct possibilities for future engagement between news organizations and the publics that they serve. 

About the authors

Meagan Doll is a postdoctoral research associate in the Minnesota Journalism Center (MJC) at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Meagan's research explores news production and consumption, with particular interest in how news media shape civic attitudes and behaviors in non-democratic contexts. Meagan uses both qualitative and quantitative methods and has international fieldwork experience in Uganda and Rwanda. Her work is published in several leading communication journals, including first-authored pieces in the International Journal of Press/Politics, Journalism, Journalism Studies, and Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. Meagan completed her Ph.D. and M.A. in Communication at the University of Washington and received her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication.

Benjamin Toff is Director of the Minnesota Journalism Center (MJC) and an Associate Professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. He is also the research director for the Alliance for Trust in Media. He studies public opinion, political communication, digital media, and changing journalistic practices and is co-author of Avoiding the News: Reluctant Audiences for Journalism (2024, Columbia University Press). From 2020-2023, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford where he led a multi-country study of the factors driving declines in trust in news. For the calendar year 2026, he is on sabbatical from his position at the University of Minnesota and is a Visiting Principal Researcher with the News and Information team at Pew Research Center.

Cydney Grannan is a Ph.D. student in Communication and Media at the University of Michigan and a graduate student affiliate of the Minnesota Journalism Center (MJC). They study journalism and political communication, including the public's relationship with news and how technology impacts news production and consumption. They received their M.A. from the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication.

Acknowledgments 

The authors thank the many participants in the study who provided their time and shared their perspectives and experiences with the researchers. We are also appreciative to past and present staff at The Texas Tribune who collaborated with us on this and other research together, including Matt Adams, Sewell Chan, Emily Dresslar, Laura Duclos, Matt Ewalt, Genevieve Genest, Ayan Mittra, Sonal Shah, and Matthew Watkins. Additionally, we thank fellow panelists and attendees at the Local Journalism Researchers Workshop at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who shared feedback about this research at an earlier stage. We are also grateful to Eric Schurenberg at the Alliance for Trust in Media for his partnership in helping to make this research possible and to Meg Martin and George Bagrov at the Minnesota Journalism Center and to Suzie Sorenson at the Hubbard School for helping on the administrative side with carrying out this project.

Questions about this research? Contact MJC director Benjamin Toff at [email protected]. Explore more of the Minnesota Journalism Center's research work on our website.