Help forge a new frontier for black-owned journalism, and making sure HBCU journalism students get paying internship.
Help forge a new frontier for black-owned journalism, and making sure HBCU journalism students get paying internship.
A New Form of Black Journalism Needs a Facelift
The HBCU Digest started six years ago as an effort to help HBCUs earn more balanced coverage. That process began with the effort to make sure most of the content being produced on HBCUs all around the country found a singular place to live for students, alumni and executives to get a broad sense about the challenges and opportunities faced by black colleges.
The mission has since evolved over dozens of site redesigns, content strategies and feedback from hundreds of thousands of readers like you. Now, the HBCU Digest focuses more on analysis of issues and themes, rather than aggregation of content from other sources.
The goal remains the same — to give readers balanced coverage of historically black colleges and universities by way of a singular platform. But the execution of that goal has to adapt to the way people use, share and enjoy online content. That means that to remain in competition for your attention with millions of other content resources, the Digest has to keep pace with video, podcasts and events that matter to you.
The Death of the HBCU Digest
How I learned what matters most in 21st century black media.medium.com
That takes money, and because the Digest is a niche publication, we tend to attract the advertising support of companies and institutions deliberately working to earn your money. Their support has allowed the Digest to grow in amazing ways over the last six years, including our move to the Medium network.
This growth signals that there is more we can do, and that the time is right to solicit your support in helping us to be for HBCUs in the digital age what Black Enterprise and Ebony Magazine did for business and lifestyle during the emergence of magazines as a mainstream media form.
We Need Your Support
The Digest has been invited to join a select number of Medium publications to pilot a special membership program, which will give supporters a chance to own a paid subscription to our publication, and to receive access to events and special promotions in HBCU cities throughout the year.
For a nominal price of $4 per month, here’s what you will receive.
Support HBCU Graduates Present and Future
In addition to these individual benefits, you will also help HBCU students and alumni in mass communications to get invaluable working experience, while also being paid a weekly stipend for their hard work. Sure, most internships for college students are free, and we know that it will take a while to get to a point to have full-time writers on staff.
But we know that African Americans face disparate challenges with finances while enrolled in college, and that black-owned journalism, like most of the industry, suffers from freefalling readership and pressure to develop content that attracts eyeballs, instead of engaging critical thinking and action.
For every student or alumnus to whom we can offer support with buying textbooks, buying a tank of gas, purchasing a new business suit or one day saving to launch their own media start up, we will have done a good job of helping to preserve a solid future for HBCUs, as those students will one day pay it forward in a similar fashion.
For every grad whom we can help to pay rent, to pay back student loans or to feed a family, we are overjoyed to be a part of the black economic ecosystem.
John Oliver put it best on why we need your support to stay alive, and to grow as the news resource of record for HBCUs.
As we build a larger subscriber base, the benefits will also increase. And you’ll be the first to know about new and exciting upgrades and changes. We hope that you consider supporting the HBCU Digest, and look forward to hearing your feedback!
