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Evan Smith

Evan Smith’s staff photo

Evan Smith is a co-founder and senior adviser at The Texas Tribune, where he served as CEO from 2009 to 2022. He’s also a senior adviser at Emerson Collective, where he works closely with the leadership teams of nonprofit news organizations around the country. Previously he spent nearly 18 years at Texas Monthly, stepping down in August 2009 as the magazine’s president and editor in chief. Evan is also the host of “Overheard with Evan Smith,” a weekly half-hour interview program that airs on PBS stations around the country. A native of New York, he is a graduate of Hamilton College and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Past Contributions

  • T-Squared: Ask and Ye Shall RSSeive.

    By Evan Smith

    One of the persistent comments we heard after going live last Tuesday was: Why can't you provide an RSS feed for your original news stream, and, more broadly, why isn't the site set up in a way that enables the RSS habits and preferences of your users? Done and done. Full Story 

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    Ramshaw's multi-parter on restraints in schools, Thevenot's reading on the future of textbooks, Ramsey's take on a Democratic defection, Rapoport's profile of self-described "religious fanatic" Don McLeroy, and Henson and Shaw's thoroughly noncontroversial poll on the governor's race (kidding!): The best of the best from November 3 to November 6, 2009. Full Story 

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  • T-Squared: We've Got Your (Feed)Back

    By Evan Smith

    Forty-eight hours or so have passed since we opened for business, and your cards and letters -- more like your tweets and e-mails -- are telling us much of what we need to know about the changes you'd like to see to our site, things that would enhance your experience. Full Story 

  • Bartlett on Rick vs. Kay ... and Bush?

    By Evan Smith

    Dan Bartlett, George W. Bush's communications director and counselor, talks to the Tribune's Evan Smith about whether the former president's loyalists -- and the former president himself? -- are taking sides in the Republican primary for governor. Full Story 

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    Credit: Elise Hu

  • 2010: The Distinguished Gentlelady from H-P?

    By Evan Smith

    Another Texan is running for the U.S. Senate -- but in an actual race, not a hypothetical one that depends on dominoes falling, and not in Texas. Austin native Carly Fiorina, the ousted CEO of Hewlett-Packard and a chastened adviser to John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, made formal today her plans to seek the Republican nomination for the California Senate seat now held by Barbara Boxer. Full Story 

  • Bartlett Calls for GOP Inclusiveness

    By Evan Smith

    Dan Bartlett, George W. Bush's communications director and counselor, talks with the Tribune's Evan Smith about the intra-party struggle between conservatives and moderates in the Republican party. (To listen to the full thirty-minute interview with Bartlett, see related stories.) Full Story 

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    Credit: Elise Hu

  • 2010: Hair Yesterday, Gone Today

    By Evan Smith

    So Houston hair-care king Farouk Shami is in the race, pledging to spend $10 million to win a Democratic primary in which the majority of voters are still undecided. Among the interesting things to watch will be the dynamic between Shami and his rival for the nomination, Kinky Friedman, as the two are well acquainted: Shami was the subject of one of Kinky's fawning TEXAS MONTHLY columns (edited by yours truly) back in 2003 -- the sort of piece in which he would go all gooey over someone he professes to love, like Racehorse Haynes or Jim Nabors. Full Story