Nashville, Tennessee (October 8, 2024) — Editor & Publisher (E&P), the authoritative voice of news media since 1884, announced the recipient of its Publisher of the Year award in person at the New York Amsterdam News headquarters on Monday, October 7th.
Elinor R. Tatum, publisher and editor-in-chief of the New York Amsterdam News — one of America’s oldest and most influential Black newspapers, was surprised by Robin Blinder, editor-in-chief, and Gretchen A. Peck, contributing editor, from Editor & Publisher. On hand for the announcement via Zoom was Mike Blinder, E&P publisher, and over 30 of Tatum’s team members, friends and colleagues. The online celebration included countless stories of Tatum’s life-changing impact on the careers of her colleagues and employees.
Tatum, who has been with the New York Amsterdam News for 30 years, has led the team through pivotal events such as 9-11 to the election of Barack Obama to the pandemic. Over the last three years, Amsterdam News launched a visionary and comprehensive reinvention — including a digital transformation, challenging newsroom projects and a rigorous reorganization of all business departments to optimize revenue, contain overhead costs, emphasize client retention and experience, ensure long-term sustainability and enhance employee quality-of-life.
Today, Amsterdam News has one of the fastest-growing and largest digital readerships of any legacy Black newspaper. Their journalism excellence has garnered them more than 30 journalism and industry awards in the past three years. At a time when many outlets are experiencing layoffs and cutbacks, Tatum has added two editors, four journalists and countless interns to its newsroom.
Always committed to racial justice journalism, Tatum, along with her executive editor, Damaso Reyes, fulfilled a long-held mutual dream of launching the first-ever investigative unit in a legacy Black newspaper—the award-winning “Blacklight." Blacklight garnered an ever-increasing number of awards while delivering critically needed journalism to the readership of New York Amsterdam News. Blacklight’s investigations provide its readers with investigative reporting on gun violence in Black and Brown communities, information about the impact of climate change on communities of color and much more.
Watch the surprise (unedited) ZOOM meeting informaing Tatum of her selection
Tatum played a crucial role in creating “Word In Black” with her colleague Black publishers nationwide and the Local Media Association. This historic collaboration between 10 legacy Black publishers has produced award-winning original journalism, as well as providing much-needed revenue for its members.
In her nomination, Siobhan Bennett, president and chief revenue officer for New York Amsterdam, stated, “Publisher Elinor R. Tatum’s leadership as a woman of color highlights the crucial role that ethnic media plays in preserving our democracy. In a time of dramatic change in the media industry, Tatum’s stewardship of the Amsterdam News is a beacon of hope.”
“We are thrilled to highlight Publisher Elinor Tatum and her accomplishments in our November 2024 issue of E&P. Her dedication to the Amsterdam News community and racial justice in news media is a shining example of what we look for in our Publisher of the Year. As the first woman of color to hold this title, Tatum continues to break the mold for others following her,” said Mike Blinder.
Tatum will be featured on the cover of E&P’s November 2024 issue, along with a feature profile in the magazine, online and in social channels.
About E&P: Published since 1901, E&P originally focused on reporting stories centered on the traditional, legacy news publishing industry, having been described for decades as the “bible of the newspaper industry.” Today E&P reports on all aspects of news media and multimedia news publishing. E&P still prints a monthly print magazine that is published online and is mailed to over 5,000 news publishing executives and distributed at yearly news media events.
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