Two local community newspapers are reborn as ethnic news media expand reach

By Daniel Powell

In an era of major-daily newspaper closure, massive journalist layoffs, and a race to make Internet news sites economically viable, the ethnic news media continue to grow and reach more people all the time.

A poll released by New America Media last June showed impressive numbers. Ethnic media reach 57 million African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Americans on a regular basis, roughly 82 percent of adults from those three groups. Those numbers showed an increase of 8 million adults, or 16 percent, over a similar study released in 2005.

But even small, community-minded ethnic newspapers haven’t been immune to the rash of closures currently sweeping the industry. The last two years have seen two long-running, highly regarded community newspapers shut down. Both the Nichi Bei Times and the San Francisco Bay View, serving the Japanese-American and African-American communities respectively, have ceased publication.

The difference? Unlike any of the major print dailies with similar fates, both of these papers’ editors have managed to resume putting out print publications mainly through their tenacity and passion, as well as a groundswell of community support.

“A lot of eyes are on us, and we see this as a pioneering effort,” said Kenji Taguma, editor of the non-profit Nichi Bei Weekly, a paper he started to fill the gap left by the closure of the Nichi Bei Times, founded in 1946. “We’re maybe the first paper of its kind in this era to make the leap to non-profit.”

Taguma made the decision to start a new print newspaper after the board of directors of the Nichi Bei Times, then Northern California’s longest running Japanese American newspaper, shuttered that publication.

“Our main thrust is to continue to publish the Nichi Bei Weekly in a way which mirrors what we used to do with the Times,” Taguma said. “We’re creating something here that engages the community in a more direct fashion than traditional newspapers.”

That description could also fit the San Francisco Bay View, a nationally renowned African American newspaper published out of the Bayview district by husband and wife Willie and Mary Ratcliff, who took it over in the early 1990s. Founded in 1976, the paper was forced to close in June of 2008 for three months due to a lack of funding. The Ratcliffs received a second lease on life when they received donations from individuals in the community who wanted to see local coverage during the historic election year.

“It worked so well we thought we could do it as a monthly rather than a weekly,” said Willie Ratcliff. “It’s about cutting expenses and getting the most from your buck. I use my own vehicle to distribute in Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco.”

The Bay View has a website, but the Ratcliffs are committed to remaining a print publication as well.

“There are too many people in our community without internet access,” Mary Ratcliff said. “And people were already devastated when we stopped printing the weekly edition. I’d love to go back to a weekly publication, we’re as popular as ever, but there’s always a cash flow problem.”

Cash flow has been an issue for Taguma and the Nichi Bei Weekly as well. Taguma is currently waiting to be granted non-profit status by the IRS, and can’t apply for grants from companies or community groups until he gets it. In the meantime the paper has survived by soliciting contributions from individuals totaling some $40,000, enough to continue putting out a weekly 12-page paper for a few months.

“We never expected this kind of community support,” Taguma said. “I’m driven by the historic legacy of the Nichi Bei Times. We’ll try and continue that legacy.”

(Produced in collaboration with El Tecolote.)