The Commonwealth Times Staff
Last week, the Richmond Free Press, the city’s decades-old, free Black-run newspaper, closed up circulation and released its final issue.
The Richmond Free Press has served the community with quality, principled news since 1992. It was created to “empower its readers,” as once said by its legacied founder Raymond H. Boone Sr., who passed away in 2014.
Boone created the Richmond Free Press as an alternative to a media environment that was then failing to capture the full picture, according to the paper’s final front-page article.
“Newspapers, to a large degree, ignored the principles of journalism, of being fair,” Boone said. “Instead, they promoted segregation, and they promoted what was popular, rather than honoring the First Amendment, which stands for giving free expression to all segments of the community.”
Boone and the Richmond Free Press staff provided an avenue for under-served community perspectives — all while braving hostility from white-owned publications and some community members when it launched.
To put it simply, the Richmond Free Press was an absolute institution in the community. It highlighted stories that would not typically receive the same attention from the media.
At a time when most newspapers were experiencing layoffs and declines in readership, the Richmond Free Press was only growing, with a readership of more than 135,000 and a circulation of more than 35,000, according to its website.
The newspaper shuttered not because of a lack of a need, but because it no longer had the advertising support to continue, according to a Facebook post by Boone’s wife and the newspaper’s last publisher, Jean Boone.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch — the city’s printed paper of record — has grown increasingly inaccessible under its corporate owner. And The Commonwealth Times, while we do our best, is largely catered toward VCU students and can only be found in particular parts of town.
The Richmond Free Press should be celebrated for its longstanding commitment to service and accessibility.
In its later years, the Richmond Free Press did not appear to be immune to the same tight budgets and layoffs plaguing the news industry.
It should be noted that the Richmond Free Press picked up plenty of student-written stories by VCU Capital News Service. The newspaper reposted stories by The CT on social media very often — for which we are thankful.
The Richmond Free Press was a training ground too, having highlighted so many student journalists looking to get their start. They platformed us, therefore we should honor them.
The sunsetting of the Richmond Free Press is a gut-punch reminder why people need to protect local news media.
Anyone who hopes to live in a free democracy has a responsibility to support the outlets still standing, as well as the new outlets springing up from the ashes.
At the same time, local media — be they print, broadcast, digital, for-profit or nonprofit — have a responsibility to follow in the footsteps of the Black-run news outlets that pioneered the journalistic ethical principles we adhere to every day.
Represent the unrepresented. Give a voice to the voiceless. Serve the people in your community. We at The CT do our best to follow those precedents every day.
“If a newspaper is only looking at its bottom line, it is looking too low.”
— Raymond H. Boone Sr., founder of The Richmond Free Press
EDITOR’S NOTE: Staff editorials by The Commonwealth Times are written and edited by all members of staff. The content of editorials is voted on by staff members and must be unanimously agreed-upon ahead of publication.