Chris Cobler has spent more than four decades in journalism, starting as a reporter in his hometown of Topeka, Kansas, and eventually leading news organizations in Colorado and Texas.

Along the way, he's had the chance to work with remarkable journalists, experiment with new ways of serving communities and help build news organizations during one of the most disruptive periods in the history of the business.

Most recently, he was the founding CEO, editor and publisher of the Fort Worth Report, a nonprofit newsroom launched in 2021. Before that, he was editor and publisher of the Victoria (Texas) Advocate and the top editor at the Greeley (Colo.) Tribune and the Denton (Texas) Record-Chronicle. Earlier in his career, he did reporting and editing at the Fort Collins Coloradoan, the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph and the Topeka Capital-Journal.

This site is a record of that work — the journalism, the people, the experiments that succeeded, the ones that didn’t, and what he and his teams learned along the way.  It also is an invitation to other lovers of trusted local journalism: He's open to consulting, speaking and volunteering for the cause.  

When Cobler started at the Fort Worth Report, he brought extensive experience in community journalism but did not know how that approach would translate in one of the nation’s largest cities. Audience research conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates in 2023, and again more comprehensively in 2026, showed that the approach worked exceptionally well.

In the earlier research's, Magid found that Fort Worth residents loved where they lived but did not feel as connected to their community as they wanted to be. Early readers said the job the Report was doing best was exactly this: helping them feel more connected — and that was the key reason they valued the nonprofit startup.

Three years later, the research found those strong feelings of support remained among the Report’s much larger audience. Researchers concluded that the Report was well positioned to “meet the moment” envisioned in the organization’s "Vision 2030:" connecting Fort Worth and Tarrant County communities with trusted local news and information for decades to come. The research's exciting conclusion: The team had set the Report on a clear path toward long-term sustainability.

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