Real Times

Last updated
Real Times Media LLC
Company type Private
FoundedJanuary 2003 (2003-01)
Headquarters Buhl Building, Suite 1300, 535 Griswold Street,
Detroit, Michigan 48226, United States
Area served
Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Pittsburgh metro areas
Products Weekly newspapers and other publications catering to the African-American community
Website RealTimesMedia.com

Real Times Media LLC is the owner and publisher of the Chicago Defender , the largest and most influential African American weekly newspaper, as well as five other regional weeklies in the eastern and Midwestern United States. Its headquarters are in Midtown Detroit.

Contents

The company was founded in January 2003 by a consortium of Chicago and Detroit business leaders to take over the assets of Sengstacke Enterprises Inc., the longtime owner of five of the papers.

History

Sengstacke Enterprises

Robert Sengstacke Abbott founded the Chicago Defender in 1905, billing it the "World's Greatest Weekly". The Defender served the growing African-American community of Chicago, which was often ignored by the mainstream newspapers of the day. Sengstacke also used the Defender as a means to grow the community, writing stories about Northern city life that enticed African-American residents of the Southern United States to move to Chicago, a phenomenon that came to be known as the Great Migration. Like other giants of the contemporary black press, the Defender enjoyed substantial circulation across the nation. [1]

Abbott's nephew John H. Sengstacke, who became publisher in 1940, was a founder of the National Negro Publishers Association, later renamed the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), which now has 200 member black newspapers.

On February 6, 1956, the Defender became a daily newspaper and changed its name to the Chicago Daily Defender, the nation's second black daily newspaper (after the Atlanta Daily World , founded in 1928). It published as a daily until 2003, when new owners converted the Defender back to a weekly.

Sengstacke also built his newspaper into a chain. He had previously established the Michigan Chronicle in Detroit in 1936, [2] and turned the Chicago paper's Memphis bureau into the Tri-State Defender weekly newspaper in 1951. [3] In 1965, he purchased the assets of the recently defunct Pittsburgh Courier and started the New Pittsburgh Courier

This chain became known as Sengstacke Enterprises Inc., or SEI. Following Sengstacke's death in 1997, SEI was held in a family trust until 2003, when it was sold for nearly $12 million to Real Times, a group of investors with several business and family ties to Sengstacke. [4]

Real Times

The Globe Tobacco Building at one time housed the company headquarters Globe Tobacco Building Detroit MI.jpg
The Globe Tobacco Building at one time housed the company headquarters

Amid the uncertainty over the SEI papers' futures—Sengstacke had left instructions that the papers were to be sold upon his death, but the search for the right buyer took six years—longtime Michigan Chronicle publisher Sam Logan left the paper in 2000 and in May of that year formed a competing weekly, The Michigan FrontPage . [5] Logan was one of the investors in Real Times, and the company continued to publish FrontPage alongside the four Sengstacke titles.

In 2012, the Atlanta Daily World – which, despite its name, is now published weekly – merged with Real Times; its publisher said the sale would give the World more multimedia resources, calling it "truly a new beginning for the paper." [6]

In June 2024, influential Real Times Media co-owner William Pickard died. [7]

Corporate affairs

The company has its headquarters in Midtown Detroit. [8] At one time its headquarters were in the Globe Tobacco Building in Downtown Detroit, [9] and later the Buhl Building in Downtown Detroit. [10]

Holdings

Real Times publishes seven newspapers in five different markets:

The company also owns RTM Digital Studios, a videography company, and a large archive of newspaper clippings, artifacts and photographs connected with African-American history.

In 2009, Real Times purchased Who's Who Publishing Company of Columbus, Ohio, which publishes biographical and networking guides for and about African American businesspeople in 25 cities across the country. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Metro Times</i> Newspaper in Detroit, Michigan

The Detroit Metro Times is a progressive alternative weekly located in Detroit, Michigan. It is the largest circulating weekly newspaper in the metro Detroit area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Sengstacke Abbott</span> African American publisher and lawyer

Robert Sengstacke Abbott was an American lawyer, newspaper publisher and editor. Abbott founded The Chicago Defender in 1905, which grew to have the highest circulation of any black-owned newspaper in the country.

The New Pittsburgh Courier is a weekly African-American newspaper based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is owned by Real Times.

The Michigan Chronicle is a weekly African-American newspaper based in Detroit, Michigan. It was founded in 1936 by John H. Sengstacke, editor of the Chicago Defender. Together with the Defender and a handful of other African-American newspapers, it is owned by Detroit-based Real Times Inc. Its headquarters are in the Real Times offices in Midtown Detroit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Downtown Detroit</span> Area of Detroit, Michigan, United States

Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, "downtown" tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 to the west, Interstate 75 to the north, I-375 to the east, and the Detroit River to the south. It may also be used to refer to the Greater Downtown area, a 7.2 square mile region that includes surrounding neighborhoods such as Midtown, Corktown, Rivertown, and Woodbridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African American newspapers</span> Newspapers serving African American communities

African American newspapers are news publications in the United States serving African American communities. Samuel Cornish and John Brown Russwurm started the first African American periodical, Freedom's Journal, in 1827. During the Antebellum South, other African American newspapers sprang up, such as The North Star, founded in 1847 by Frederick Douglass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John H. Sengstacke</span> American businessman (1912–1997)

John Herman Henry Sengstacke was an American newspaper publisher and owner of the largest chain of African-American oriented newspapers in the United States. Sengstacke was also a civil rights activist and worked for a strong black press, founding the National Newspaper Publishers Association in 1940, to unify and strengthen African-American owned papers. Sengstacke served seven terms as president of the association, which by the early 21st century had 200 members.

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), formerly the National Negro Publishers Association, is an association of African American newspaper publishers from across the United States. It was established in 1940 and took its current name in 1956. Its headquarters was in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Pittsburgh Courier was an African American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh from 1907 until October 22, 1966. By the 1930s, the Courier was one of the leading black newspapers in the United States.

The Michigan FrontPage is a weekly African-American newspaper based in Detroit, Michigan, serving the African-American community. It was founded in 2000 by a former publisher of the Michigan Chronicle and has been owned by the Chronicle's parent company, Real Times Inc., since 2003. Its headquarters are in the Real Times offices in Midtown Detroit.

Percival Leroy (P.L.) Prattis was an American journalist. He was the city editor of the Chicago Defender, the most influential African-American weekly newspaper in the U.S. at the beginning of World War I. Later, he spent 30 years at the Pittsburgh Courier, another influential black paper, rising up to become executive editor.

Hazel B. Garland was a journalist, columnist and newspaper editor. She was the first African-American woman to serve as editor-in-chief of a nationally circulated newspaper chain. Born into a farming family, she was the eldest of 16 children. Although a bright and capable student, she dropped out of high school at her fathers instigation, and spent time working as a maid in order to provide financial assistance to her family.

<i>Atlanta Daily World</i> American newspaper, founded 1928

The Atlanta Daily World is the oldest black newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, founded in 1928. Currently owned by Real Times Inc., it publishes daily online. It was "one of the earliest and most influential black newspapers."

The Chicago Defender is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim Crow-era violence and urged black people in the American South to settle in the north in what became the Great Migration. Abbott worked out an informal distribution system with Pullman porters who surreptitiously took his paper by rail far beyond Chicago, especially to African American readers in the southern United States. Under his nephew and chosen successor, John H. Sengstacke, the paper dealt with racial segregation in the United States, especially in the U.S. military, during World War II. Copies of the paper were passed along in communities, and it is estimated that at its most successful, each copy was read by four to five people.

The Tri-State Defender is a weekly African-American newspaper serving Memphis, Tennessee, and the nearby areas of Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. It bills itself as "The Mid-South's Best Alternative Newspaper". The Defender was founded in 1951 by John H. Sengstacke, owner of the Chicago Defender. In 2013, the paper was locally purchased from Real Times Media by the Tri-State Defender Board of Directors

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert A. Sengstacke</span> African-American photojournalist

Robert Abbott Sengstacke, also known as Bobby Sengstacke, was an African-American photojournalist during the Civil Rights Movement for the Chicago Defender in Chicago, Illinois. Sengstacke was well known for his famous portraits of Martin Luther King Jr. and other prominent civil rights leaders. Sengstacke inherited the family–owned Sengstacke Newspaper Company. After retiring from journalism in 2015, Sengstacke moved to Hammond, Indiana where he lived until his death due to a respiratory illness in 2017 at age 73.

Frank L. Stanley Sr. was an American newspaper publisher and editor. Stanley co-founded and became sole publisher of The Louisville Defender, the city's leading Black newspaper that he led for 38 years. The Louisville Defender published in the face of regular threats and attacks, persevering under Stanley's belief that "racism is not insoluble." Stanley was general president of Alpha Phi Alpha and a civil rights activist. He drafted the resolution that led to desegregation of higher education in Kentucky, and chaired desegregation committees for the U.S. Secretary of War. Stanley was selected twice as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize Award committee.

References

  1. DeSantis, Alan (1998). "Selling the American Dream Myth to Black Southerners: The Chicago Defender and the Great Migration of 1915-1919". Western Journal of Communication. 62 (4): 474–511. doi:10.1080/10570319809374621.
  2. Keating, Patrick (October 6, 2010). "Chronicle to Clock 75". Michigan Chronicle. Retrieved May 3, 2012.
  3. Webb, Arthur L. (January 4, 2006). "Celebrating 55 Years: Tri-State Defender, Then and Now". Tri-State Defender. Archived from the original on January 25, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2012.
  4. "Chicago Defender, Black-Owned Newspaper, is Finally Sold". Jet . February 10, 2003. Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2012.
  5. Smith, Jennette (May 8, 2000). "Despite Risks, Publications Still Seek Comfortable Niche". Crain's Detroit Business . Retrieved May 3, 2012.[ dead link ]
  6. "Atlanta Daily World Newspaper Joins Real Times Media". New Pittsburgh Courier. March 14, 2012. Archived from the original on November 20, 2018. Retrieved May 3, 2012.
  7. Martin, Kylie (June 13, 2024). "Michigan Chronicle co-owner, entrepreneur, philanthropist William Pickard dies at 83". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved June 13, 2024.
  8. "Contact Us." (Archive) Real Times Media. Retrieved on December 11, 2013. "Real Times Media 479 Ledyard Detroit, MI 48201"
  9. "Home." (Archive) Real Times Media. June 17, 2007. Retrieved on December 11, 2013. "Headquarters: The Globe Building • 407 E. Fort Street • Suite 410 • Detroit, MI • 48226 "
  10. "Home." (Archive) Real Times Media. December 3, 2007. Retrieved on December 11, 2013. "Headquarters: The Buhl Building • 535 Griswold Street • Suite 1300 • Detroit, MI • 48226 "
  11. "Real Times Media Acquires Who's Who Publishing". RealTimesMedia.com. February 6, 2009. Archived from the original on April 18, 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2012.