Texas Observer journalists raise $270,000 in bid to save publication

Magazine's editors asked board not to lay off anyone for a month if staff raised $200,000 after Friday's vote to cease publication

Journalists at the muckraking liberal magazine Texas Observer have raised more than $270,000 through a GoFundMe campaign in a last-ditch attempt to save the publication from closure.

The storied publication - founded in 1954 by Ronnie Dugger, edited in the 1970s by Molly Ivins, and described this week by John Nichols as the connecting tissue of Texas liberalism" - had suffered extreme instability in recent years, with a revolving door of editors-in-chief and frequent conflict between its owners, the non-profit Texas Democracy Foundation, and its staff.