Word In Black, a groundbreaking collaborative of the nation’s leading Black publishers and a program managed by Local Media Foundation, has received a $25,000 grant from the Southern Newspapers Publishers Association Foundation to support the expansion of the collaborative’s weekly newsletter.
“The SNPA Foundation is very interested in funding ideas that are sustainable and transferable within the publishing industry,” said P.J. Browning, board chair of the SNPA Foundation and president and publisher of The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C. “Word In Black is such an outstanding example of collaboration and how sharing ideas and working together moves everyone forward. Their application stood out among the others and it was unanimous to support their growth efforts.”
Launched in June, the newsletter is shared on Fridays, filled with impactful local journalism and an opinion piece from one of the 10 founding publishers. The subscriber list has grown to more than 10,000 in less than five months.
“SNPA’s support comes at a moment of exponential growth for Word In Black as it crosses 10,000 subscribers via its national newsletter, which is now at a tipping point to launch a second weekly newsletter,” said Andrew Ramsammy, chief content and collaboration officer for Local Media Association. “With SNPA’s funding, we’ll expand our newsletter editorial product that will deepen our relationship with current readers, expand our reach to new audiences, and grow recurring revenue towards an overall sustainable business model.”
The LMA project, managed by its affiliated Local Media Foundation, is on track to expand into 2022 through a mix of generous support from philanthropic institutions, corporations, and individual donors. This support is meant to act as an accelerant as publishers in the collaborative continue to expand on their business and digital transformations.
To sign up for the Word In Black newsletter, click here. And to become a founding member of Word In Black, please consider making a donation.
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