If you’ve been worried about the future of black media, then my talk with Emmy-award winning journalist Jiquanda Johnson will lift you up – and maybe even get you busy.
This female founder of Michigan’s hyper-local Flint Beat newsroom has used her 20 years in the industry to create platforms for black stories, walking the line between journalism and activism while daring to offer in-depth reporting in this age of tweets and TikTok.
Her staff of roving reporters seek out the stories that national news networks don’t (or won’t) bother to cover or uncover, and she’s fully embraced the digital age – she won that Emmy with videos aired on Facebook, okay?
So, listen in to get the scoop on Jiquanda’s unintended career path and the road that led her back home, what has and hasn’t changed in journalism in 40 years, the challenges facing black female founders, where she found financial backing, and the only way our legacy newsrooms will get access to those funds (it’s simple, but it ain’t easy) … and more!
"We don’t go for news stories as an approach of clicks – we go for quality and impact, which makes a big difference.” – Jiquanda Johnson
Highlights From This Episode:
- True Story! You don’t have to look for purpose – it can find you
- The birth of a community-first newspaper
- 4 funding sources for community journalism
- What I wish every “celebrity” journalist would do
- 2 things Flint Beat reports on that big networks don’t
- Pop Quiz! Do you know what your audience wants, or are you guessing?
- Some things never change…
- 3 reasons to tap into your industry’s organizations and associations
- Challenges facing the black female publisher
- Where newspaper funding is NOT going these days
- Why the black media needs to embrace digital media
- True Story! You can win an Emmy with Facebook videos #whaaaa
- What’s coming next for Flint Beat – it’s big!
- Where to send news tips for Jiquanda
- Two radio stations owned by black women
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