Baltimore Beat

Last updated
Baltimore Beat
Type Alternative weekly
EditorLisa Snowden-McCray
Founded2017
Headquarters Baltimore, Maryland
Website baltimorebeat.com

Baltimore Beat is an American nonprofit media outlet based in and focused on Baltimore, Maryland.

History

Brandon Soderberg was editor-in-chief of the Baltimore City Paper when Baltimore Sun Media Group announced that it would close the alt weekly. Soderberg made several unsuccessful attempts to save the paper. Eventually, he partnered with publisher, Kevin Naff (of Brown Naff Pitts Omnimedia) to launch a new publication, the Baltimore Beat. Soderberg then recruited former City Paper editor, Lisa Snowden-McCray, to serve as the Beat's editor-in-chief. [1] [2]

Baltimore Beat had initial operating support (accounting, design, and production) from the Washington Blade (which is also published by Naff). In November 2017, two weeks after the final issue of Baltimore City Paper, the first issue of Baltimore Beat was released. [3] The debut cover story was a feature on local activist Erricka Bridgeford, written by Snowden-McCray and photographed by Devin Allen. [4]

Four months after its launch, Baltimore Beat closed due to insufficient advertising revenue. Though he'd initially expressed confidence in their business model, [3] Naff blamed the shortfall on "perception of crime" in Baltimore. [5]

One year after its initial shuttering, Soderberg and Snowden-McCray relaunched the Baltimore Beat as a nonprofit, digital publication focused on "service journalism and high-impact investigative work.". [6] The two founders solicited private donations by setting up a Patreon for the paper. They also received support from the Baltimore Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. [4]

In 2020, the Beat began a two-year pause of publication. [6] When it resumed in August 2022, with both print and digital media, the Beat re-introduced itself as a "Black-led, Black-controlled nonprofit newspaper and media outlet." [7] [8] The publication had received a $1 million donation from the Lillian Holofcener Charitable Foundation, which, by making the donation had effectively emptied its reserves. According to Adam Holofcener, the donation was "an attempt to directly respond to the calls for racial justice after the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020 and an attempt to purge the family of gains it had made, which, as Holofcener sees it, came at the expense of Baltimore’s Black residents." [9]

In describing the difference between Baltimore Beat and more established Baltimore-based newspapers, like the century-old Afro News , Snowden-McCray explained, "We have City Paper in our DNA. So I think that our lane is not at all to try to replace a 100-plus-year-old paper. Our lane is to figure out how to hold government accountable and do the things that we can do, provide deep arts coverage in the way that we can do it. I think Black people deserve a multitude of media outlets. We're just trying to help contribute to that." [8]

Snowden-McCray has remained the Beat's editor-in-chief throughout its history; but leading up to its 2022 relaunch, Soderberg moved into a temporary role, as director of operations, which concluded in September 2022. [10] Baltimore Beat staff also includes Teri Henderson as arts and culture editor. [11]

Related Research Articles

<i>NME</i> British music journalism website and former magazine

New Musical Express (NME) is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a free publication, before becoming an online brand which includes its website and radio stations.

<i>The Jerusalem Post</i> English-language Israeli newspaper

The Jerusalem Post is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. In 1950, it changed its name to The Jerusalem Post. In 2004, the paper was bought by Mirkaei Tikshoret, a diversified Israeli media firm controlled by investor Eli Azur. The Jerusalem Post is published in English. Previously, it also had a French edition.

<i>Washington Blade</i> American LGBT newspaper

The Washington Blade is an LGBT newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area. The Blade is the oldest LGBT newspaper in the United States and third largest by circulation, behind the Philadelphia Gay News and the Gay City News of New York City. The Blade is often referred to as America's gay newspaper of record because it chronicled LGBT news locally, nationally, and internationally. The New York Times said the Blade is considered "one of the most influential publications written for a gay audience."

<i>The Baltimore Sun</i> Daily broadsheet newspaper in the US

The Baltimore Sun is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news.

The Georgia Straight is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as The Straight, it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools, public libraries and a large variety of other locations. The Straight has a long history of independent, unconventional editorials and content, and is known as a vocal critic of government, notably the former Liberal government of Gordon Campbell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Greene Park</span> Public park in Brooklyn, New York

Fort Greene Park is a city-owned and -operated park in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The 30.2-acre (12.2 ha) park was originally named after the fort formerly located there, Fort Putnam, itself was named for Rufus Putnam, George Washington's chief of engineers in the Revolutionary War.

<i>Chicago Reader</i> Alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago

The Chicago Reader, or Reader, is an American alternative newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. The Reader has been recognized as a pioneer among alternative weeklies for both its creative nonfiction and its commercial scheme. Richard Karpel, then-executive director of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, wrote:

[T]he most significant historical event in the creation of the modern alt-weekly occurred in Chicago in 1971, when the Chicago Reader pioneered the practice of free circulation, a cornerstone of today's alternative papers. The Reader also developed a new kind of journalism, ignoring the news and focusing on everyday life and ordinary people.

DigBoston—formerly known as the Weekly Dig and colloquially as The Dig—was a free alternative newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts. It covered news in the Greater Boston area and offers commentary on music, arts, politics, business, film, sex, food, drink and more, as well as providing local bar, entertainment and club listings. DigBoston was distributed Thursdays, free of charge, in self-serve newspaper dispensers located throughout the city, as well as in local businesses.

Baltimore Club, also called B'more Club, B'more House or simply B'more, is a music genre that fuses breakbeat and house. It was created in Baltimore, Maryland in the early to late 1990s by 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell, Frank Ski, and DJ K-Swift, among others.

<i>Baltimore City Paper</i> Weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore City Paper was a free alternative weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, founded in 1977 by Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch. The most recent owner was the Baltimore Sun Media Group, which purchased the paper in 2014 from Times-Shamrock Communications, which had owned the newspaper since 1987. It was distributed on Wednesdays in distinctive yellow boxes found throughout the Baltimore area. The paper folded in 2017, due to the collapse of advertising revenue income to print media. The Media Group's closure announcement happened at the same meeting immediately after recognizing City Paper staff joining the Washington-Baltimore News Guild.

The Real News Network (TRNN) is a news organization based in Baltimore, Maryland, that covers both national and international news. It includes both for-profit arm and non-profit organizations.

<i>Street Sense</i> (newspaper) Street newspaper in Washington, D.C.

Street Sense is a weekly street newspaper sold by self-employed homeless distributors ("vendors") on the streets of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It is published by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Street Sense Media, which also produces documentary filmmaking, photography, theatre, illustration and poetry. The organization says this media, most of which is created by homeless and formerly homeless people, is designed to break down stereotypes and educate the community.

Sylvia Snowden is an African American abstract painter who works with acrylics, oil pastels, and mixed media to create textured works that convey the "feel of paint". Many museums have hosted her art in exhibits, while several have added her works to their permanent collections.

<i>Isthmus</i> (newspaper)

Isthmus is a free alternative newspaper based in Madison, Wisconsin (US). Founded by Vince O'Hern and Fred Milverstedt in 1976, the paper is published monthly on the first Thursday, with a circulation of 35,000. In 2020 the newspaper became a nonprofit, joining a growing number of local news outlets turning to community support to fund operations. Isthmus offers local news, opinion, sports and coverage of the arts, dining and music scenes.

The Ethnic press in Baltimore, Maryland is press directed to a particular ethnic minority group or community in mind, including the non-English-language press. While English-language newspapers have always served the general population, many of Baltimore's ethnic immigrant communities have had newspapers published in their native languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chirlane McCray</span> American writer and political figure

Chirlane Irene McCray is an American writer, editor, and activist. She is married to former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and had been described as de Blasio's "closest advisor." She chaired the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City and was appointed by her husband to lead a billion-dollar initiative called ThriveNYC. She has also published poetry and worked in politics as a speechwriter.

<i>The Colorado Sun</i> Online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado, US

The Colorado Sun is an online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado. It launched on September 10, 2018, to provide long-form, in-depth coverage of news from all around Colorado. It was started with two years of funding from blockchain venture capitalists at Civil and from a Kickstarter campaign. The operation is now funded by reader support, through memberships, and from sponsorship and grant revenue. The Sun is an associate member of the Associated Press.

Triad City Beat is a free weekly alternative newspaper with distribution in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point in North Carolina. It was founded in 2014 by Brian Clarey, Jordan Green and Eric Ginsburg, who were former editors and reporters for YES! Weekly. The newspaper primarily covers topics local to the Triad such as news, politics, culture, opinion, music, and food. It describes itself as an independent voice to hold "economic and governmental powers accountable" across the Triad and North Carolina, and as a defender of democracy, as well as "LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice and an urban sensibility". It has an estimated circulation of 10,000, and is published every Thursday.

States Newsroom is a left-leaning non-profit news organization with outlets or partner outlets in all 50 U.S. states. It began as a sponsored project of the Hopewell Fund, a left-leaning nonprofit that does not disclose its donors. In 2019, it spun off to become its own non-profit. It accepts no corporate donations, and publicly shares the sources of all contributions above $1,000. It grew out of NC Policy Watch, a progressive think tank in North Carolina founded by Chris Fitzsimon in 2004. Fitzsimon is States Newsroom's director and publisher.

The Baltimore Banner is a news website in Baltimore founded by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, which is a nonprofit set up by Stewart W. Bainum Jr. It launched June 14, 2022. The website has 44,000 paying subscribers and a staff of 125, with about 80 working the newsroom, as of March 2024.

References

  1. ↑ "Baltimore City Paper is closing after 40 years. Will it be missed?". Washington Post. 2023-04-09. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2023-06-23.
  2. ↑ January 2018, Ron Cassie | (2017-12-29). "Lisa Snowden-McCray Discusses Starting the Baltimore Beat". Baltimore Magazine. Retrieved 2023-06-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. 1 2 "Baltimore's New Alt-Weekly Isn't Just Like Its Old One". Bloomberg.com. 2017-11-15. Retrieved 2023-06-23.
  4. 1 2 "Baltimore Beat is rebuilding its community ties as an alt-weekly after corporate cut-downs". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  5. ↑ "Baltimore Beat publisher faults closure on Baltimore crime, perception of it". Baltimore Sun. 2018-03-06. Retrieved 2023-06-23.
  6. 1 2 Staff, Daily Record (2022-05-13). "Baltimore Beat nonprofit news publication makes return to print, online | Maryland Daily Record" . Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  7. ↑ "About Us". Baltimore Beat. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  8. 1 2 "Here's why the 'Baltimore Beat' relaunched as a Black-led, nonprofit publication". National Public Radio. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Foundation empties coffers to fund Black paper in Baltimore". NBC News. 2023-01-19. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  10. ↑ Beat, Baltimore (2022-09-07). "BRANDON SODERBERG ANNOUNCES DEPARTURE FROM BALTIMORE BEAT". Baltimore Beat. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  11. ↑ "Our Team". Baltimore Beat. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.