The current state of Black media is interesting, to say the least. While there does appear to be a plethora of larger media entities that are very explicitly targeting a Black demographic, when you peel the curtain back and look at how many of these entities are actually Black owned that number starts to dwindle. Historically, media is used in order to communicate a message and control a narrative. It isn't in our best interest to get chunks of our information from media entities that we don't own. Not because the information may be false or not of high quality. But who wouldn't want to be spoken to by people who look like them?
Landscape aside, let's look at content. For Black-owned media and media that is primarily targeting a Black demographic, there is often an overemphasis on sports and entertainment. Of course, these two are large categories and no one is to blame for the overconsumption or overdistribution of this content. The problem is that it creates an atmosphere of relatively homogenous content across the Black media ecosystem. If all the companies are only talking about sports and entertainment, there is an audience that in many ways could be isolated. What about the Black professionals in business, science, tech, art, etc?
Imagine you're a recent journalism grad from a university here in the United States. You have dreams of working in media and writing for a large media company. You're passionate about Black culture globally and would like to also write about topics that are happening around the world that may not be exclusively affecting Black people but are relevant to the overall human experience. Let's even throw in that you want to do some investigative journalism, some op-eds, and some other long-form editorial content. If you're looking for a job, are there a bunch of Black-owned media entities that you can apply to? If you can name more than 10, what are they? If there are not, why is that?
Whose fault is this? As we get down to the heart of the matter, the issue is purely about money. Media companies want to get as many clicks as possible in order to use the data to go back to advertisers. This is how they get paid. By using the metrics from their websites and social media, they are able to get money from advertisers and sponsors. Here's the kicker though. The data shows that advertising money simply doesn't go to Black media. A report in 2022 that examined the increase in ad spending on Black media found that Black media was still only getting 1.16% of the $76 billion spent on ads.
Being fair to all the players involved, people are aware of the advertising issue. In 2021, Group Black was formed to generate $500 million in advertising dollars for Black-owned media. Business Insider published this week that the group has had multiple executives leave and the money has not yet been put together for whatever reason. It's no secret that in 2020, there was a big push for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and since then a lot of that push has all but disappeared. But ad spending isn't about DEI. Shouldn't any major advertiser want to spend money to reach such a coveted audience? Less than 2% of ad dollars for an audience that spends is almost irrational. In a 2021 report, McKinsey reported that from 2019 to 2030 the collective economic power of Black consumers will increase from $910 billion to $1.7 trillion.
Advertisers should be fighting to get in front of an audience of this economic magnitude. Surely, the money must be going somewhere. In the coming weeks, we'll decipher where and how Black media has evolved as well as media in general.