T-Squared: About the Tribune-Chronicle Partnership...

Although we've been preaching the benefits of collaboration with other news organizations since the Trib launched last November, the one that bore fruit today was not our idea. Credit for the maiden partnership between the Tribune and the Houston Chronicle actually goes to Jeff Cohen, the editor of the Chron, who suggested a couple months back that we pair our reporters on a major investigative project. The indefatigable Emily Ramshaw of the Trib and the Chron's Terri Langford got to work immediately, and the joint project that resulted is one that Jeff and I are enormously proud of: a massive public-spirited undertaking on a critical subject that was executed flawlessly. I'm equally glad to see that many newspapers and broadcast outlets around Texas thought well of enough of Em's and Terri's story that they ran it too. Occasionally the best-laid plans pan out.

I know why I so was happy and eager to partner with the Chron: It's a great newspaper with a venerable editorial tradition and a fine, talented staff producing meaningful journalism under trying economic circumstances. In this specific case, we were lucky to work with Terri, who is a first-class reporter and a truly good person, and also with George Haj, the Chron's amenable and accommodating deputy managing editor for news, and assistant managing editor Jacquee Petchel, who shepherded the final product with grace and skill. Here's what Jeff says about the Chron's rationale for partnering with the Trib:

“On some wide-ranging stories, two news organizations are certainly better than one in pursing the truth. We each bring passionate, enterprising reporters to a subject, and the beneficiaries are the voiceless of Texas.”

Trib readers will recall that we've already worked in tandem with Newsweek, and I'm pleased to say that we're in the midst of another big project with the El Paso Times that's a few weeks from seeing the light of day. More of these will surely happen in the months to come, including, I feel confident, similar joint efforts with our friends at the Chronicle. Stay tuned.