Amsterdam News, icon of Black-owned publishing, presses forward with a page from its past
HARLEM — The New York Amsterdam News is an institution among the Black press. Now the paper is leaning on its illustrious past to help give it a future in a changing media landscape.
Publisher Elinor Tatum can rattle off a long list of occasions when the newsroom stepped up for its primarily minority readership. Tatum says the paper’s coverage of The Central Park Five case stands out.
“We have been telling the stories other people will not tell, through our lens, through the lens of our community,” Tatum said.
“The Black press has stood firm. These are multigenerational family-owned businesses that they will literally not let go out of business,” according to AmNews Educational Foundation CEO Siobhan Bennett. She credits Tatum and her family’s dedication and sacrifices over the decades. “By some miracle, the Tatum family has kept this building and paid for all its expenses all these years, but now we’re at a breaking point.”
The Amsterdam News and many newspapers have struggled to keep their business footing. To help elevate some of the financial pressure, the paper is launching a preservation project. Tatum, Bennett and the paper’s staff are working with preservationists to transform the historic newsroom into a public gathering and education center. The goal is to make the Harlem building a historic landmark that celebrates the Amsterdam News’ work and the role of the Black press.
As the paper ends one chapter and begins the next, Tatum sees the project as “a way to preserve all of that and to tell the story of Black New York at the same time.”
