While the Black press has historically been an unmatched source for news coverage of our community, Black newsrooms across the country have struggled to keep pace with the digital evolution. To address these challenges, programs like the Black Media Initiative at the City University of New York (CUNY) have emerged, paving the way for increased access to technology and economic opportunities for Black-owned media outlets.
“Figuring out how to reach an online audience and how to monetize it is time-consuming, and a lot of times, the platforms are expensive,” said Cheryl Thompson-Morton, director of the Black Media Initiative. “We aim to ease some of that time of trying to figure out what’s the best option, [avoiding] wasting money on technology that may not work, and try to make it easier for people as they are working to make that transition.”
The Black Media Initiative, which launched in 2020, is part of the Center for Community Media at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. The program serves as a central hub for Black media outlets nationwide, providing support through advocacy, networking, training, and research, connecting them with critical resources for their longevity.
As director, Thompson-Morton facilitates these services, offering support and pioneering projects to address the digital blindspot in Black newsrooms.
Another reason, she said, some Black media outlets struggle to adapt is because of dependence on their print content.
“Oftentimes for legacy outlets, our dominant revenue has come, and still continues to come, from our print products,” said Thompson-Morton. “So there’s been a lack, traditionally, of investment into digital technologies and digital content because it really hasn’t been as profitable.”
Michael Grant, CEO and founder of Get Current Studio, has collaborated with the initiative for webinars and training, offering his insights for Black newsrooms seeking support for digital transition. He said part of the struggle is an expertise and skills gap.
“Maybe they have web producers, but those web producers aren’t writing SEO, or maybe they have an e-mail sign-up, but there’s no newsletter product,” he said. “Maybe they haven’t been brought up to speed as to what newsletter products would do for them. So there’s like the knowledge gap in terms of what are opportunities on the web that they could capitalize on.”
For Cheryl Smith, who’s worked with the Black Media Initiative before, lack of expertise means financial loss. As a publisher of her own media company, I Messenger Media, she expressed frustration about the limited digital proficiency among employees, which leads to wasted assets. “There’s not an overabundance of people who know how to sell digitally, so that becomes an issue.” she said.
Empowering Black-owned newsrooms
The Black Media Green Book, one of the most significant projects spearheaded by Thompson-Morton, is a report that tackles the issue of digital expertise directly—linking Black media outlets with freelancers, experts, and technology partners familiar with Black media. Through these connections, outlets can gain increased access to the crucial resources and knowledge necessary to navigate and succeed in the shifting media landscape.
Dr. Kaia Shivers, the founder and editor-in-chief of Ark Republic, an online news agency, recommended the book to her reporters as a resource. She said that because her employees are freelancers, it can be challenging to find expert insights, stressing the value of tools like the Green Book for Black media outlets.
“Supplying them with as many resources to produce good stories is critical.” she said. “The Green Book actually has a list of experts or people that would be willing to talk to the Black press.”
The creation of the report highlights a standard practice of the Black Media Initiative—listening.
“That was one that came from the bottom up, from really listening to publishers about their needs and then trying to help execute any of them or what they were asking for,” Thompson-Morton said.
The Black Media Initiative helps in other ways, too. Grant, who’s worked with the initiative for training sessions, said working with the program increased exposure to his organization.
“They are an important part of an ecosystem of referrals and exposure to publishers who we might not know about and who we haven’t engaged with and could become our customers as well,” he said. “It’s really important work and all the better if they can also be a resource to my small business.”
Thompson-Morton explained that they’ve conducted various types of technology-related training, covering topics such as utilizing social media, expanding audience, building newsletters, and exploring different components of digital audience development.
In 2022, the initiative hosted its first cohort for the Black Media Product Strategy Program, which trained 12 Black-owned newsrooms nationwide on crafting product strategies for digital transformation, audience growth, and sustainability, free of charge for six months.
Shivers, a program participant, said the cohort helped her navigate transitioning from media maker to media owner.
“I was a journalist first, and so all I did was produce stories. But when I became a media owner, I did not know how much I did not know about [the] media business,” she said. “So it really helped me as an entrepreneur who’s constantly on the grind, to think about how to restructure and how to build out, and monetize those things we think are just small pieces of our organization but might have a lot of value.”
Boosting revenue & collaboration between Black newsrooms
In addition to addressing the digital gap in Black newsrooms, the Black Media Initiative aims to help Black-owned media outlets boost revenue. This objective is facilitated through their monthly training sessions and projects, offering guidance for increasing revenue and implementing fundraising strategies.
Thompson-Morton recalled a previous initiative, The Bridge Project, where they paired six newsrooms with technology partners to help them launch an audience revenue strategy—methods to help them generate income directly from their audience.
“Out of that cohort, 40% of them generated additional audience revenue in that time, and another 40% expected to generate additional revenue from their audience in the next six months,” she said. “We also saw, as a result of that program, that 60% of the respondents were optimistic about their ability to increase audience revenue, and 80% felt confident that they knew what it took to generate audience revenue.”
Outlets have also benefited from networking sessions held by the program, becoming a place where significant collaborations unfold.
The Black Headline News Channel is one of the projects that emerged from a session. Launched by a coalition of newsrooms in 2022, the channel provides a 24/7 stream of news from Black outlets across the country.
“Black news is global,” said Brigitte Jones, the associate producer for Black Headline News, in a review of the program’s first anniversary. “Everyone wants to know what is happening from a non-biased viewpoint, no matter who they are. Black Headline News’ original content is going to give them that.”
Smith hosts a weekly radio show on the channel alongside Jones and founder Julia Dudley Najieb, where they provide their perspective on the latest news stories. She described the relationship between outlets as mutually beneficial.
“We share information. I go to get information from other papers to participate with them,” she said. “I use their stories and they use my stories, so it gives us further exposure.”
The Role of Local Black Media
In a research project by the Black Media Initiative titled Why Black Media Matters, Thompson-Morton and her team developed a report comparing news coverage from Black media and mainstream media sources, analyzing content from March 2020 through May 2021.
Key findings indicate a significant gap between the Black and mainstream media spheres in terms of covering the Black community. For example, 23% of articles in Black media centered on racism or related topics, compared to 8% in mainstream media. Concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, Black media provided five times more coverage of its disproportionate racial impact and nearly doubled the attention to frontline and essential workers compared to mainstream sources.
Not only that, Black media frequently used the word “Black” in their reporting, a practice less common in mainstream outlets. Black media also consistently emphasized specific social identities, such as community, family, women, and children, which were not as prevalent in mainstream coverage.
“Black media humanizes people, Black people, and people of all races more than mainstream media,” said Thompson-Morton. “We also saw that Black media, when they’re talking about current day events, they’re tying it to the historical fight for justice.”
The fight continues
Looking ahead, Thompson-Morton emphasizes the program’s focus on the upcoming election and additional research initiatives.
“We want to provide reporting resources for newsrooms who are covering the election,” she said. “The second big thing is we are going to be embarking on our next research project, so this is going to be an overview of Black media throughout the country—the state of Black media.”
They also plan to continue their standard practices, such as training and networking sessions, and help newsrooms improve their business models and revenue streams.
For Shivers, however, the fight for digital equity in Black newsrooms only begins with the Black Media Initiative. She said that while the program sets a solid template for other institutions to follow, there’s still work to be done. This includes changing leadership and providing reparations for Black newsrooms to enhance access to resources and funding.
“The older Black owners of these presses have got to create a system of giving it over to a younger person who has a vision that aligns with the paper and can take them into this digital age,” she said, adding that the system should continue to incorporate traditional leaders, who tend to be older Black people.
“While the Black Media Initiative has the program and the insight, as well as enough hands-on Black media publishers and practitioners to understand the issue, it does not have the resources to put a dent in it in a way that we need in order to bring Black media into the digital space like it needs to be brought into the digital space.”
Recent efforts like the recently passed Local Journalism Sustainability Act and the Press Forward coalition help to strengthen the presence of local newsrooms, highlighting the vital role of local news in providing reliable information to communities.
Making notable change within the media landscape for Black newsrooms and coverage requires more Black Media initiatives and engagement from younger generations, who will inherit the legacy of Black media.
“We, as a Black press, really need to think about how we, as a whole and collective, embed ourselves into this digital age effectively so that the younger folks can invest in us,” she said “Because we can’t, as Black press, be [successful] if we have no community that respects us, reads us, [or] listens to us.”
This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship Lab. The Lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.