ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996 TAG: 9602090052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
This 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 its own obituary after 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 Richmond Afro-American was published by the Afro-American Company of Baltimore City Inc., which also publishes Afro-American newspapers in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Tracey G. Jeter, advertising and operations manager at the Richmond Afro-American, 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 newsprint has jumped 83 percent since early 1994, according to Pulp & Paper Week, a paper industry newsletter.
Former Gov. Douglas Wilder, who was the nation's first elected black governor, 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,'' said Wilder, who served as governor from 1990-94.
Jeter said the Afro-American'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 will expand its World Wide Web page on the Internet, the global computer network.
The Richmond Afro-American 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 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.
At one time, an Afro-American newspaper was available in any city in the country with a sizable black population, said Todd Burroughs, a University of Maryland doctoral student studying the black press.
``It was the premiere black newspaper chain of the East Coast,'' he said. ``However, I wouldn't call this the decline of the black press; it is a transfer.''
The paper was founded in 1883 as the Richmond Planet by City Council member John Mitchell. Mitchell, the son of slaves, championed the rights of minorities at a time when lynchings were commonplace.
The Afro-American newspaper group was founded in 1892. It bought the Richmond Planet in 1938 and changed the name.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB