News and Politics | January 03, 2009 | 5 comments

Obama's win brings firsts for black press

source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16894.html

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Barack Obama’s election as president is prompting major changes in the nation’s black press, ushering in a series of firsts that editors say will reshape print, Internet, radio and television coverage aimed at African-American audiences.

Essence, the top-selling magazine among black women, will have a full-time White House reporter for the first time. Ebony magazine will add a White House reporter, either full time or as needed. Its sister publication, Jet magazine, will have a weekly two-page Washington report in every issue.

And Black Entertainment Television is scrapping its usual fare of videos and sitcoms for a four-hour live broadcast of Obama’s swearing-in — just as the leading cable network in black households did for both party conventions last summer, and on Election Day. TV One will do the same, airing 21 hours of inauguration coverage throughout the day.

In some ways, the moves mark a return to a time when the black press — particularly magazines — were newsier.

The moves are also an indication of the deep ties Obama formed with the black press — and by extension, the black community — over the course of the campaign. Black support for the president-elect was 95 percent, a record.
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    News and Politics,   Collective Journalism,   Election 2008
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    News and Politics,  Barack Obama,  Election 2008,  Media,  5 more
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