The ''Amsterdam News'' (also known as ''New York Amsterdam News'') is a weekly Black-owned newspaper serving

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It is one of the oldest newspapers geared toward

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s in the United States and has published columns by such figures as

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relativel ...

Roy Wilkins Roy Ottoway Wilkins (August 30, 1901 – September 8, 1981) was an American civil rights leader from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins' most notable role was his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), ...

, and

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (November 29, 1908 – April 4, 1972) was an American Baptist pastor and politician who represented the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the United States House of Representatives from 1945 until 1971. He was t ...

, and was the first to recognize and publish

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Islam in the United States, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figur ...

. It operated from the

New York Amsterdam News Building The New York Amsterdam News Building is a historic rowhouse at 2293 Seventh Avenue in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is historically significant as the publishing home of the '' New York Amsterdam News'' between 1916 ...

on Seventh Avenue in Harlem from 1916-1938. The building is a National Landmark.

Foundation

The ''Amsterdam News'' was founded on December 4, 1909, and is headquartered in the

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

neighborhood of

Upper Manhattan Upper Manhattan is the northern section of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, 110th Street (the northern boundary of Central Park), 1 ...

. The newspaper takes its name from its original location one block east of Amsterdam Avenue, at West 65th Street and

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

. An investment of US$10 in 1909 () turned the ''Amsterdam News'' into one of New York's largest and most influential Black-owned-and-operated business institutions, and one of the nation's most prominent ethnic publications. It was later reported that James Henry Anderson published the first copy: "...with a dream in mind, $10 in his pocket, six sheets of paper and two pencils." The ''Amsterdam News'' was one of about 50 black-owned newspapers in the United States at the time it was founded. It was sold for 2 cents a copy () from Anderson's home at 132 West 65th Street, in the San Juan Hill section of Manhattan's Upper West Side. With the spread of Blacks to Harlem and the growing success of the paper, Anderson moved the ''Amsterdam News'' uptown to 17 West 135th Street in 1910. In 1916, it moved to 2293 Seventh Avenue, and in 1938, it moved again, to 2271 Seventh Avenue. In the early 1940s, the paper relocated to its present headquarters at 2340 Eighth Avenue (also known in Harlem as Frederick Douglass Boulevard). Not soon after the death of Edward Warren, one of the early publishers, Anderson sold his stock in the paper. On October 9, 1935, the paper's editorial employees went on strike. It was the first time the staff of a black-owned newspaper had gone on strike and led to the ''Amsterdam News'' becoming the first unionized black paper. The strike ended on December 24, 1935, when the paper's bankruptcy receiver Laurence H. Axman,

Newspaper Guild The NewsGuild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933. In addition to improving wages and working conditions, its constitution says its purpose is to fight for honesty in journalism and the news industry's business practic ...

president

Carl Randau Carl Randau (8 August 1893 - April 1969) was an American playwrightDashiell Hammett, ''Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett'', Counterpoint,U.S., 2002, p. 26/ref> and journalist. Biography A native of Iowa, Society of Sigma Xi, ''A Magazine of Si ...

, and businessmen Dr. C. B. Powell and Dr. Phillip M. H. Savory reached an agreement that saw the locked-out employees receive a 10% wage increase, a five-day, 40-hour work week, two weeks of annual vacation time, three-month dismissal notices for employees with more than 10 years of service, the establishment of a guild shop, and the removal of strike-breaking staff. The paper was taken over by Powell and Savory following bankruptcy proceedings by the paper's three largest creditors. Dr. Powell assumed the role of publisher. During Powell's stewardship, the ''Amsterdam News'' not only took on local news, but national news as well. Much of the paper's strength was based on its shaping the advancement and realization of Black aspirations. As a consequence, the paper is one of the most frequently quoted black newspapers in the world. The ''Amsterdam News'' has had many significant innovations. It was the second black newspaper, after the ''

Chicago Defender ''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...

'', to be admitted to the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) in October 1930, of which it is still a member. In 1936, it became the first and, to this day, the only—black newspaper that was unionized in all departments by the Newspaper Guild of New York, Local 3. By 1961, the ''New York Amsterdam News'' had become the largest weekly community newspaper in the nation. On May 1, 1971, Dr. C. B. Powell announced his retirement and sold the ''Amsterdam News'' to the AmNews Corporation, its present owner. Over the years, many important figures in journalism have been editors of the paper, including T. Thomas Fortune, George W. Harris, Obie McCollum, John Lewis Clarke, Earl Brown, Dan Burley, Julius J. Adams, Thomas Watkins, S. W. Garlington, Stanley Ross, T. J. Sellers, Dr. G. James Fleming, James L. Hicks, Jesse H. Walker, and Bryant Rollins. While the ''Amsterdam News'' is black-oriented, it has always been aware of the fact that it serves a multiracial community and recognized other ethnic groups. On November 26, 1963, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' credited the ''Amsterdam News'' with inspiring a crackdown on vices and other ills in the village of Harlem:

"The Amsterdam News has always had a great deal of persuasive power in Harlem and other black communities."''Amsterdam News'' (2011)
"About Us"
Quoted from ''The New York Times'', 26 November 1963.

From 1972 to 1979, the newspaper began an art review column written by Gylbert Coker to cover African American art exhibitions and the African American artists. In August 1982, Wilbert A. Tatum, chairman of the AmNews Corporation's board of directors and the paper's editor-in-chief, became publisher and chief executive officer. Under Tatum's leadership, the ''Amsterdam News'' broadened its editorial perspective, particularly in international affairs. This expanded thrust has produced considerable interest and readership from all sectors of the local, national and international communities. In July 1996, Tatum bought out the last remaining investor, putting the future of the paper firmly in the hands of the Tatum family. In December 1997, Tatum stepped down as publisher and editor-in-chief and passed the torch to his daughter, Elinor Ruth Tatum, who at the age of 26 became one of the youngest newspaper publishers in the United States. Tatum died in 2009. Elinor Tatum currently serves as publisher, editor-in-chief, and CEO. The newspaper launched a companion web site and online edition, amsterdamnews.com, in 2009.

Circulation

In October 1930, it became the second Black newspaper to be admitted to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. At its height in the 1940s, newspaper had a circulation of 100,000 and was one of the four largest

African American newspapers African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** List ...

in the United States. As of 2015, it circulates nearly 15,000 copies of the paper weekly.

Format

In 1979, the newspaper changed from

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of in height. Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper ...

to tabloid format.

Operations

Its editor and publisher is Elinor Tatum, daughter of Wilbert "Bill" Tatum (1933—2009), who has served as the newspaper's editor, publisher, chairman and CEO.

References

External links