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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (June 20, 2018)
Page 10 The Skanner June 20, 2018 News Chicago Reader Now Black-Owned Thanks to Dorothy Leavell orothy Leavell, the fiery and fearless chairman of the Na- tional Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and publisher of the Chicago and Gary Crusader newspapers, announced that she has led a group in purchas- ing the “Chicago Reader.” Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it’s a historic purchase that brings the alternative newspaper with an au- dited weekly circulation of about 85,000 into the NNPA family of 220 Af- rican American newspa- pers and media compa- nies. The paper had most recently been owned by the Chicago Sun-Times, which reportedly will maintain a 15 percent stake in the Reader after the sale closes later this month. “I see this as an oppor- tunity to enhance the value of the Black Press through the [Chicago Reader],” Leavell told NNPA Newswire. “It is [now] definitely Black- owned.” Sun-Times CEO Ed- win Eisendrath joined Leavell at the Rainbow PUSH Convention in Chi- cago to first reveal the sale. “We love the Reader and have worked hard D WORSOM ROBINSON/NNPA By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Contributor NNPA Chairman Dorothy Leavell said that she wants to expand the Chicago Reader’s long-form, investigative reporting. to be sure it has a foun- dation for the future. All of us at the Sun-Times are thrilled that the Reader’s future is in such good hands,” Eisendrath said. Such a marriage per- haps had less than a small chance of being consummated 25 years ago when the Reader staff poked fun at the NNPA and Leavell after Civil Rights Leader Nelson Mandela failed to attend a Black Press convention when he toured America after being released from prison in 1993. In an article headlined, “Black Press Feels Ne- glected,” the Reader not- ed how Mandela found time for Ted Koppel, The New York Times and The Washington Post, but not the NNPA, which held its annual convention in Chicago at that time. “The NNPA, which is the nation’s principal Black Press organiza- tion, was deeply insult- ed,” according to the article, which quoted Leavell, then Secretary of the NNPA. Leavell and then-NNPA Executive Director Steve Davis jointly told the me- dia that it wasn’t Mande- la’s fault but those who scheduled him. “The vis- it has brought us to the realization that we must insist on the right to par- ticipate in all decisions involving the welfare of Black people,” they de- clared. Now a quarter of a cen- tury later, Leavell has purchased the Reader. Born in Pine Bluff, Ar- kansas on October 23, 1944, Leavell attended Roosevelt University. She was first elected president of the NNPA in June of 1995 for a two-year term and was re-elected in June 1997 ending her term in 1999. Leavell was credited with increasing the visi- bility and international stature of the trade or- ganization. In June of 2006, Leavell was elected Chairman of the NNPA Foundation. She was voted in as na- tional chairman again in 2017. “The NNPA resolute- ly congratulates our esteemed chairman, Dorothy R. Leavell, the publisher of the Chicago Crusader and the Gary Crusader, on her acqui- sition of the legendary Chicago Reader publica- tion,” said Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., the pres- ident and CEO of the NNPA. “This acquisition comes at a strategic na- tional moment when the Black Press in America is growing, expanding, in- novating and increasing market share across the United States.” Further, the NNPA is experiencing significant increase in readership and engagement of Afri- can-American millenni- als in both out print and digital products, Chavis said. “ like to see the Reader’s long-form, investigative reporting expanded. “We are going to broad- en that scope,” Leavell said. “We want to be in We must insist on the right to participate in all deci- sions involving the welfare of Black people “The Black Press has consistently maintained its trustworthy status with Black America at a time when there has been an erosion of trust in so-called mainstream media,” Chavis said. “For all of these contempo- rary reasons the future of the Black Press is re- assured and affirmed by 47 million African Americans and millions of others throughout the world.” Leavell said that she’d every community to bring you the news that you enjoy already. We’re going to be expanding. We will increase our cul- tural information. You want to know what’s hap- pening in Chicago? You gotta read the Reader.” Stacy Brown is an NNPA Newswire Contributor. Follow Stacy on Twitter @ stacybrownmedia. This article was origi- nally published on Black- PressUSA.com. Breed cont’d from pg 8 Born in San Francisco, Breed was raised by her grandmother in the city’s public housing. Breed praised United States Sena- tor Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), among others, as being an influence. She said she wanted to emulate her grandmother, who took care of the community and looked after every- one. “It’s really amazing, and it’s real- ly an honor and I know it means so much to so many people,” she said, responding to a question about be- ing the first African American fe- male to earn election to the city’s mayor’s office. “This is my home and I grew up in some of the most challeng- ing of circumstances.” Breed continued: “I think the message that this sends to the next generation of young people growing up in this city, that no matter where you come from, you can do anything you want to do.” In a January interview with NNPA Newswire, Breed said she planned to remain the same outspoken, 43-year- old who was raised on the hard knock streets of the Fillmore District, just southwest of Nob Hill. “People sometimes say about me, ‘I can’t believe, she said that.’ I remind them, I’m from Fillmore, but I say it in the way we say it in the streets—‘Fill- Mo,’” Breed said. “When you come from the kind of community that I come from and experience a lot of frustration, if you are not outspoken you can’t get the things done that you need to [get done].” After first being appointed to take over for Lee after his death on Decem- ber 12, local media noted that Breed has been criticized for being “head- strong” and “outspoken,” once even an- nouncing to her peers that she “was no shrinking violet.” “I am who I am, and I didn’t think I’d ever run for office, because I am who I am,” Breed said. “I say what I feel like I need to say and that’s how I’ve always been, and I couldn’t live with myself, if I felt that I have to change to be an elect- ed official.” This article was originally published on BlackPressUSA.com.
