Posted On: January 31, 2023
Fellowship
Media Organization: New York Amsterdam News
Company Description
The New York Amsterdam News was started more than a century ago, with a $10 investment. It has gone on to become one of the most important Black newspapers in the country and today remains one of the most influential Black-owned and -operated media businesses in the nation, if not the world. On Dec. 4, 1909, James H. Anderson put out the first edition of the Amsterdam News with six sheets of paper, a lead pencil, a dressmaker’s table and that $10 investment. The Amsterdam News was one of only 50 Black newspapers in the country at that time. Copies were sold for two-cents a piece from his home at 132 W. 65th St. in Manhattan. The paper was named after the avenue where Anderson lived in New York’s San Juan Hill section of Manhattan.
By 1910, as Blacks began the Great Exodus from the South, moving into big cities like Chicago, Philadelphia and New York’s Village of Harlem, so grew the success of the Amsterdam News, so much so that An- derson soon moved the paper uptown to 17 W. 135th St. Still growing, the AmNews moved again in 1916 to 2293 Seventh Ave. The next move came in 1938 to 2271 Seventh Avenue until, in the early 1940s, it relocated to its present address at 2340 Frederick Douglass Blvd. in Harlem. In 1926, publisher Edward Warren’s wife, Sadie, purchased the paper. It struggled for survival until 1935, when it was bought by two of the nation’s foremost Black entrepreneurs, Dr. Cielan Bethan Powell and Dr. Phillip M.H. Savory of the Powell Savory Corporation. Powell assumed the role of publisher. During Powell’s tenure, the Amsterdam News expanded its reach, reporting not only on local stories that were important to the Black community, but national news stories as well. The AmNews reported on the fight for equality during the Jim Crow era, the events of the Civil Rights Movement, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Freedom Riders, among other stories, making it by far the most influential and most frequently-cited Black weekly in the country.
The Amsterdam News was one of the first publications to focus its attention on Malcolm X and began publishing his column, “God’s Angry Man.” A host of the most influential Black leaders in the nation who have appeared in the Amsterdam News include scholar W.E.B. DuBois, activist Roy Wilkins, Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, NAACP President Ben Jealous and Rep. Charles Rangel. In 1963, the New York Times credited the Amsterdam News with inspiring a crackdown on the drug and crime epidemics that gripped Harlem, saying, “The Amsterdam News has always had a great deal of persuasive power in Harlem and other Black communities.”
On May 1, 1971, Powell announced his retirement and sold the paper to the Amnews Corporation, which currently retains ownership. In August of 1982, Wilbert A. Tatum, who was chairman of the board of the Amews Corporation and publisher, broadened its reach still further by extending the editorial perspective into international affairs. This wider scope resulted in increased interest and readership within local, national and international communities. In July 1996, Tatum gained complete ownership of the Amsterdam News. The future of the storied publication was now solely in the hands of the Tatum family. A year later, Tatum stepped down, handing the reigns of publisher and editor-in-chief to his then-26-year-old daughter, Elinor Ruth Tatum, who retains those positions to date.
Wilbert Tatum died on Feb. 26, 2009.
The Amsterdam News has enjoyed significant accomplishments. In October of 1930, it became the second Black newspaper to be admitted to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. In 1936, it became the first and remains the only Black newspaper to be unionized in all departments by the Newspaper Guild of New York Local 3. While the Amsterdam News is “The New Black View,” it remains keenly aware and respectful of the fact that it serves an increasingly multi-racial and multi-ethnic community in New York and beyond. Today, the New York Amsterdam News remains the voice of one of the largest and most influential Black communities in the country and the world.
Job Description
The Blacklight, the New York Amsterdam News’ investigative unit, is excited to announce our 2023 Gun Violence Reporting Fellowship, which is part of our Beyond the Barrel of the Gun initiative. Funded by the Google News Initiative News Equity Fund, we are seeking an investigative reporting fellow who will work with our investigative unit to report on the root causes and the impact of gun violence within our Black and Brown communities, as well as the solutions to this plague which disproportionately harms Black and Brown New Yorkers.
Founded in 1909, The New York Amsterdam News is America’s most influential continuously published Black newspaper, serving the nation’s largest Black and brown community – one of only fifty Black newspapers in the country at its founding.
This fellowship is designed for an early to mid career journalist who has reporting experience but is looking to deepen their practice by working on a longform investigative project. Our fellow may explore data journalism and visualization as well as public records and community-based reporting.
The fellowship will last up to three months and includes a stipend of $10,000.
To Apply
To apply, please submit PDFs of the following documents: a thoughtful cover letter, 2-3 previously published stories (links are acceptable), a resume and a project proposal no longer than two pages detailing your story idea to blacklight@amsterdamnews.com with Fellowship in the subject line. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
The deadline to apply is Friday, February 17th, 2023 at 5pm EST.
While we will determine an exact fellowship start date in consultation with the successful applicant, we expect the fellowship to begin no later than May 2023.
The ideal proposal will be for a series of articles and/or multimedia stories which explores an aspect of gun violence, its root causes and/or impact on Black and brown communities as well as solutions. We are especially interested in proposals that explore the idea of gun violence as a public health issue. While the Amsterdam News is based in New York, we will accept proposals that tackle this topic anywhere in the United States. Fellows should already based in the location they plan on reporting from as no additional travel funds are available. Applicants who have already done some pre reporting will have a distinct advantage.
In your proposal please answer the following questions:
What is the story about? Who is being impacted? Are there solutions to the challenges that you are writing about?
Has anyone else covered this story? If so, how is your proposal different or deeper than what has already been reported?
Who are the main subjects/sources/communities that you will be interviewing/profiling?