The state’s oldest African American newspaper has a new owner.
The Birmingham Times, was purchased by the Foundation for Progress in Journalism, a Birmingham non-profit. Sam Martin will be the paper’s new publisher. Martin was formerly the publisher for the Montgomery Advertiser.
“We believe there has been a void in the coverage of the African-American community. We will look to fill that void. We will cover a lot of events,” says The Birmingham Times’s next executive editor, Barnett Wright, former political reporter at The Birmingham News.
“That doesn’t just mean things that are related to race,” says Wright. “Taxes, corruption, finances, health…all those things have an impact on the African-American community.”
The Times was founded by Dr. Jesse Lewis more than 50 years ago at the height of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement.
This is a historic day for me personally,” Dr. Lewis said in The Birmingham Times. “I’m glad to see that The Birmingham Times will continue to live on. When I first published the newspaper in 1964 it was to give the Black community a much-needed platform. The need for that platform continues to exist, so I am honored that The Birmingham Times will continue to exist.”