Blackinformant.com

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Before I get to the main article, let’s take a brisk walk through time as I have been covering this topic for years.

Back in February of this year, the Black press got mad at Obama because he was not treating them like the much bigger media outlets.

After the first black president completed his first prime-time press conference, the black press was red hot.
“We were window dressing,” said Hazel Edney, a reporter with the National Newspaper Publishers Association, also known as the Black Press of America. “We were nothing more than window dressing.”

[...]

While most on the front row got to pose a question to President Obama, the two reporters from the black press did not. Nor did any other black-press reporter, for that matter.

“This was like Reagan, when he’d put all the blacks up front,” said another prominent but visibly peeved black-press reporter who asked to remain anonymous. “He oughta’ be ashamed.”

Then the following month, the Black press decided to give Obama an award for being the “Newsmaker of the Year”.

“Later in the afternoon, the President and the First Lady will attend a reception with the National Newspaper Publisher Association in the State Dining Room, where they will be presented the Newsmaker of the Year award. This event is closed press.” (source)

Moving on…

A few year ago, the Black press was making a big stink about advertisers were not using their newspapers to reach the Black community.

Back in ’06, Black newspapers out here on the West coast were upset that the Pasadena Playhouse opted out of paying for advertising in their newspapers.

“Hopkins alleges that the Pasadena Playhouse spends their advertising dollars with White owned newspapers, while ignoring the Black Press, except through their non paying marketing strategies which includes free press releases sent to the Black press and soliciting Black audiences, directly through African American sororities and social groups such as the Links, and others, to form theater parties. Hopkins does not criticize the age old practice of holding theater parties or direct sales approaches. He feels, however, money from Black groups go to support advertising for White owned newspapers, while many Black press newspapers are snubbed. Black plays for next years’ season are already being promoted to Black audiences.” (source)

Also back in ’06, then editor-in-chief for the NNPA (George E. Curry) described this trend of avoiding Black newspapers for advertising “Economic Terrorism”. Here is the excerpt from his article I used back in ’06.

“Whether it’s the refusal of some companies to advertise in Black newspapers, employ Black ad agencies or adopt a we-know-it-all attitude, African-Americans are getting shafted. And it affects African-Americans in so many ways.”

“Adonis Hoffman, senior vice president for the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said it is a fact that some advertisers can reach Blacks without going through Black media. While that is technically correct, it ignores some important considerations. First, numerous surveys show that African-Americans give more credibility to ads that appear in Black publications. Second, a company that advertises in a White-owned publication could be speaking to anyone. However, when they advertise in Black outlets, they are demonstrating that they value Black consumers and are making a specific appeal to them.” (source link no longer exists, but here is my original post)

Even T.D. Jakes wasn’t spared from the anger over low advertising revenue.

ATLANTA (NNPA) – Talk is cheap and, apparently, so too is renowned television minister Bishop T. D. Jakes. In June, Jakes who has been dubbed “America’s Best Preacher” by TIME magazine, pledged a partnership with the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a federation of more than 200 Black newspapers.

But when his MegaFest 2005, one of the largest religious conferences ever, rolls into Atlanta this week with an estimated 150, 000 people in attendance not one single dime will have been spent with Atlanta’s Black press.

“We got nothing, he’s not spending anything with Black newspapers,” says Cheryl Mainor, advertising and marketing director for The Atlanta Voice.

[...]

While other media outlets –including black-owned and black-formatted radio – got paid for advertising – black newspapers were only offered free tickets to MegaFest entertainment events in exchange for their advertising space. NNPA President John Smith, publisher of the Inquirer, found that slight to be insulting both to his membership and, particularly, to his Atlanta contemporaries. He is fuming.

And that brings us to the latest outburst from the NNPA.

Black Press Photographers Denied Access at Michael Jackson’s Memorial – Was it AEG or the Jackson Family?

LOS ANGELES (NNPA) – Historically the Black press has been covering Black artists, entertainers and other well-known personalities when no else would, primarily out of a sense of duty, responsibility and pride in order to showcase their talent to the world. That included Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, when they were at the beginning of their rise to stardom.

So it was not surprising that the Black press came out in full force to cover Jackson’s memorial at the event that was described as a virtual sea of Blackness. Yet, photographers representing the Los Angeles Sentinel – the oldest and largest Black newspaper on the West Coast; Ebony and Jet magazines – two of the largest Black publications in the world; and the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) – a federation that represents more than 200 Black publishers across the United States were not credentialed to take photos inside the Staples Center during the memorial of Michael Jackson.

“This is a recurring theme; this is constantly happening to the Black press all over the country,” says Danny J. Bakewell, Sr., the newly elected chairman of the NNPA (the Black Press of America) and executive publisher of the Sentinel. “This has got to stop. I am declaring today on their behalf that we are going to take on companies, associations and media outlets that overtly disrespect, disregard and devalue the Black press.”

The Black press has stubbornly been relying too much on print media in an age where publications are moving online for survival. I have repeatedly made pleas to the Black press to reconsider this antiquated way of doing business to no avail.

All of this has less to do with race and more to do with low readership in the general print media market. Why would Obama treat the Black press like a large US paper or television network? Recently, I posted some of the web page rankings of a few Black newspapers that have managed to at least put up a website.

Chicago Defender – 419,609
African American News & Issues – 1,799,272
Afro American Newspaper – 296,196
Atlantatribune.com – 3,218,372
Insight News – 2,689,877
National Association of Black Journalists – 875,623
New York Amsterdam News – 1,238,171
New York Beacon – 3,973,439
The Final Call – 151,174
Dallas Weekly – 5,721,342
The Columbus Post – 11,690,785
Philadelphia Tribune On-Line Edition – 4,168,498
Black Press USA – 1,340,816

This is how I commented on this data~

“Now do an Alexa search on some of your favorite Black bloggers and you will find that in most cases they single-handedly are able to generate more traffic than the full staff of most Black newspapers. While these numbers do not reflect offline readership, all the trends throughout the print media industry are pointing to the Internet. Are Black newspapers prepared?

Should there be some sort of partnership between the Black blogospere and the Black newspaper industry?”

In my rebuttal the other day to Roland Martin’s comments, I reminded him of the article he wrote back in 2005 belittling the blogosphere.

“I’ve taken the time to peruse a number of blogs, and folks, it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. In fact, I see blogs as nothing more than a glorified, 21st century diary. Now be honest: how many of you are dying to read what’s in your next door neighbor’s diary or some insomniac from across the globe?”

This is excerpt of my response to his piece back in 2005~

“Honestly, I do not know of any blog out there that is set on taking down a black newspaper. What Martin has failed to acknowledge in his piece is that the blogsphere has raised the stakes for fair reporting and journalism that looks beyond its own playbook. Black newspapers across the country need to take note; otherwise many of them may soon be yesterday’s news.
Hopefully, it will not come to that.”

Now to Martin’s credit, he did try to incorporate podcasting during his stint with the Chicago Defender. But again, there has to be a solid online marketing plan behind that effort if you want it to be successful.

I also raised the point several times on this site that the days of waiting a week to get your news is over. Guess what? The vast majority of Black newspapers are published once a week.

Now compare that strategy to how people are using Twitter, Facebook and other online social networks to get real time news.

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Black Press Pressures White House for Stimulus Money, Ad Fairness

Now on one hand I would say that if other papers are getting stimulus money, then Black newspapers should get it as well. But again, if your readership (online) is lower than your average, half-decent blogger, should they really be considered key news sources for Blacks?