By Edwin Buggage
Special from Data News Weekly

The importance of African-American newspapers as being the voice for the voiceless or the organ that has given the clarion call to social movements in our storied history has always been the case. From its early beginnings in 1827 when

John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish started the Freedom’s Journal, the first Black newspaper owned by African-Americans, their mission was to fight the issue of the day, which was the abolition of slavery.

It is in this historical backdrop that the continuation of the tradition of African-American newspapers that presses on in the 21st Century. The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) is a federation of more than 200 community papers across America and has for nearly seven decades served their respective communities, giving their readers news they could use.

The members of this body have converged on the city of New Orleans for their Winter Conference. “We selected New Orleans because it is a great destination and many of our members’ papers are located in the South, and we wanted to also make sure we would get a high number of attendees,” says Cloves Campbell, NNPA chairman and publisher of the Arizona Informant. “Our convention is where we bring our member publishers together and their staffs to meet and discuss what is going on in the industry and offer workshops on how to make their papers better serve their communities, in addition to giving them information about what is going on with Black newspapers as a whole and Black media. It is a chance for us not only to get together but to deal directly with issues that affect our respective papers.”

Terry Jones, Board member, Convention Committee chair and publisher of New Orleans Data News Weekly, was honored that New Orleans was chosen as the host city. “I feel good about our conference coming into the city, especially as we rebuild we are showing the value of the Black dollar and with our collective resources, we will hopefully draw attention to African-American events to the city and its economic impact whether it is in New Orleans or any of the cities of all our members/publishers,” said Jones. He has also served as the organization’s Second and First Vice-President.

In the 21st Century newspapers are facing challenges as the digital age threatens their existence. Many mainstream publications are fighting to stay afloat in this changing digital landscape, but according to chairman Campbell Black newspapers, because of their hyper-local focus, are at an advantage to stay relevant in both their print and digital editions. “I feel our biggest issue is how to navigate between the print side as well as incorporating that with the digital side.”

Contrasting the mainstream press to community papers and the differences in how they’ve responded to these changes in the industry, he says, “In the mainstream they say print is on the way out, but in our communities that is not the case; we still look towards these types of publications as a community resource. We will survive and thrive; we can have both the print for the streets and a web presence to reach more readers with our content. We tell the stories that’s not in the LA Times or USA Today. We not only report news but we also do historical pieces that are relevant to our community. We are chronicling our history and what is important in our community and recording Black history every week.”

The importance of African-American newspapers and their role in the community is not lost on Terry Jones. “I believe we provide an invaluable service to our communities in telling our story and giving our readers an unfiltered voice,” he says. “We are about giving recognition to people who are doing great things in our community as well as being the voice and the watchdog for our communities and with the new tools available online we can better coordinate our efforts at the NNPA and reach more people with our content.”

While many newspapers are seeing decreases in revenues because of a down economy, Campbell feels because of the smaller size of African-American newspapers they are at a competitive advantage and can adjust their business model that can lead to greater profits, “We have to make sure that all our papers have an online presence that can draw readers in, that can take readers from the print side to the digital side. We have to use social networking tools and other things that will add value to our respective brands and we will be looking at ways to maximize our years of credibility in our communities to increase revenues. Also we have to transfer those eyeballs who desire to get our news both on the print side and the digital side because we have over 19.5 million readers with our 200 different publications.”

The strength of NNPA and its nearly 70 years of existence is evident in its reach as it continues to leverage its collective resources where all its member publications benefit, “This is key to all of us prospering, moving ahead,” says Jones. “Our strength is in our numbers and that’s why we are meeting here in New Orleans, to share information, to help each other grow and continue to stay relevant in our communities and that is what is ultimately important--to continue to reach our readers wherever they are.”