THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 1996 TAG: 9607020260
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
LENGTH: 41 lines
A new national weekly newspaper aimed at the black middle class is planning to publish by the end of this year and hoping to build a circulation of 350,000 within five years.
Our World News ``will be the only national newspaper aimed at the black market,'' said Donald L. Miller, the publisher. The paper is to be based in Baltimore, where Miller lives.
Miller, the executive director for personnel at Dow Jones & Co. for nine years, said that while several national publications were intended for black readers, ``none of them are really newspapers.''
``You've got Ebony, which is an entertainment magazine, Essence, which is really a lifestyle magazine, and Jet, which is an interesting little pocket magazine,'' he said. ``But none of them are comprehensive newspapers.''
Our World News is to be printed and distributed by Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, but Dow Jones will not be an investor in the newspaper.
The editorial-page editor will be Paul Delaney, the first black chairman of the journalism department at the University of Alabama and a former senior editor and correspondent with The New York Times.
``We have our target audience very well-defined, and once we begin publication, the results of our effort will speak for themselves,'' Delaney said. ``There are a lot of publications out there for blacks who you might say are aspiring to be upscale. Our newspaper is aimed at those who have already arrived.''
Miller, 64, said that 1.2 million black households in the United States had incomes of $50,000 or more, and that they would be the primary target of Our World News. Miller said he hoped to turn a profit in three years.
Two mock editions have been printed, with editorial-page contributors such as Stanley Crouch, a black culture critic. Delaney, who is 63, said it would be his job ``to attract the top black - and white - writers in the country to our op-ed page to discuss the concerns of the black community.'' by CNB