Omaha Star underscores struggles faced by Black newspapers

By John Chapman

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Newspapers across the country are losing advertising revenue to audio, visual, and digital media platforms, and the same is true for the nation’s Black-owned publications.

Those papers have survived for 197 years, but they’ve had to make adjustments to survive.

The Omaha Star is one of more than 200 Black-owned community newspapers in the U.S. The National Newspapers Association, the trade organization for the country’s Black newspapers, held its annual convention recently.

Omaha Star Publisher Terri Sanders attended the convention, where they discussed how Black newspapers — like seemingly all other papers around the country — are dwindling and suffering. They also brainstormed ways Black papers have to grow and advance beyond ink and papers.

“You have a print newspaper, great, do you also have a digital version?” Sanders said. “How are you interfacing with the digital world? Do you also have social media?”

Sanders told 6 News that Black newspapers have to adjust to stay in business — to continue telling the good stories and reporting good news about happenings in the African-American community.

“For the last two weeks, the Omaha Star ran graduates from eighth grade to college and beyond,” Sander said. “We had over 60 graduates in the paper who were children of color.”

Archiving those stories in order to preserve the history of the community is vital, too, according to Sanders. She has plans to begin construction on a museum to house the archives and display north Omaha’s history in print.

“[A museum would be] monumental, because it’s not just about Omaha, but it’s about Black journalism throughout,” Sanders said. “It will be dedicated to the Black journalism experience.”

Sanders says it’s important not only to keep Black newspapers alive, but also to help grow the next generation of Black journalists. Ericka Adams will be a high school senior this fall. Right now, she’s interning at the Omaha Star.

“I like talking to people and I like hearing their stories,” Adams said. “I see people come by everyday just to get a newspaper or talk to Ms. Sanders and get new updates on what’s happening around here.”

Adams believes young people like herself must get involved in order to keep Black newspapers from going the way of the typewriter.

“Then there would be no voice for the Black community and no one to share our views and likes,” Adams said.

Sanders told 6 News the Black press in the U.S. will celebrate 200 years of service in about two years.