THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996 TAG: 9602090471
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: LOCAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
The city's oldest black newspaper, the Richmond Afro-American-Planet, has ceased publication because of rising newsprint costs and a lack of advertising.
The paper's Black History Month special edition Wednesday carried an obituary for the paper that had served the city's black community for more than a century.
``Today's special Black History issue is the last for the Richmond publication, which was found to be the weak link in the company's total growth projections,'' the newspaper announcement said.
The newspaper was published by the Afro-American Company of Baltimore City Inc., which also publishes Afro-American newspapers in Baltimore and Washington.
Tracey G. Jeter, advertising and operations manager at the Richmond paper, said economics forced the closure.
``It is because of a lack of advertising revenue and the skyrocketing cost of newsprint,'' Jeter said. The price of the paper newspapers are printed on has jumped 83 percent since early 1994, according to Pulp & Paper Week, a paper industry newsletter.
Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, who was the nation's first elected black governor from 1990-94, delivered the newspaper when he was a boy.
``It's more heartfelt in the minority community because when one of our weeklies closes, it's a void that won't be filled. I'm very upset that it has happened,'' Wilder said.
Jeter said the newspaper's eight full-time employees will negotiate severance packages with the company or may find work at the Washington or Baltimore papers. The paper had 12 part-time and free-lance employees.
The Afro-American company said it is refocusing its energies in the Baltimore and Washington markets.
The company also has plans to expand its World Wide Web page on the Internet, the global computer network.
The Richmond Afro-American-Planet had an unpaid circulation of about 20,000. Since 1992, it has faced competition from the Richmond Free Press, another weekly newspaper aimed at the black community.
The paper was founded in 1883 by City Councilman John Mitchell as the Richmond Planet. The son of slaves, Mitchell championed the rights of minorities at a time when lynchings were commonplace.
The Afro-American newspaper group was founded in 1892. It purchased the Planet in 1938 and changed the name.
The Afro-American, the oldest continuously published family-owned black newspaper chain, once had 13 editions from New Jersey to South Carolina with a combined circulation of 225,000.
Todd Burroughs, a University of Maryland doctoral student studying the black press, said at one time an Afro-American newspaper was available in any city in the country with a sizable black population.
``It was the premiere black newspaper chain of the East Coast,'' Burroughs said.
``However, I wouldn't call this the decline of the black press; it is a transfer.'' by CNB