CA to boost coverage in underserved communities
The Commercial Appeal, which this year celebrates its 180th anniversary, has often been called the newspaper you could trust in the Mid-south.
Through the decades The CA has endured Yellow Fever, the Great Depression, various wars, even having its press earn the nickname “Old Reliable” during the Confederate era when The CA printed in exile. The newspaper’s influence and coverage extended far, but in recent decades that influence and trust have barely registered in areas like Whitehaven, South Memphis, Westwood, Frayser and Hickory Hill.
The CA too often failed to cover the full spectrum of life in predominantly Black communities. And, as an institution, we lacked credibility in those areas. The coverage in those areas lacked the texture and fullness of the coverage of East Memphis, Germantown, Collierville or Bartlett.
That is changing -- and we are going on the record with our commitment to reverse that longstanding reality.
Last fall, amid the pandemic, we picked Whitehaven to craft a long-term strategy to sustain better coverage. This effort was part of a program called Table Stakes, where national journalism groups partner with local new organizations to boost coverage and trust in underserved communities.
We picked Whitehaven because it’s an historic community that includes many well-known landmarks, including Graceland, Methodist South Hospital and Southwest Tennessee Community College’s Whitehaven Center, and dozens of neighborhoods with a mix of working-class folks, middle-income residents and the affluent. The community’s 38,000 population is 93% Black.
Although the neighborhood still has a solid retail-and-service core, that retail presence is a shadow of the Whitehaven of 20 years ago. Some residents say they drive several miles to Southaven, across the state line, to get some basics they would prefer to buy in Whitehaven. The area has great potential, however, and is filled with residents who are committed to making Whitehaven a community of choice.
We want our journalism to reflect that optimism as well as the reality of the challenges and the work under way
to address them in Whitehaven.
In the last several months, our journalists have chronicled some of those issues and written about the Whitehaven citizens leading the change. Katherine Burgess wrote about Hazel Moore, who owns a beauty shop on Elvis Presley Blvd. and is unofficially known as the “mayor of Whitehaven.” Our columnist, Tonyaa Weathersbee, also wrote about Whitehaven not having a Starbucks and how some residents view an outlet of the national chain as affirmation that the community matters. (Separately, I’ve been to Muggin Coffeehouse on Brownlee Rd. in Whitehaven a couple of times and it is a community asset any neighborhood would covet.)
To help us better understand the community’s needs, The CA established a 10-member citizens advisory group in Whitehaven, filled with a range of folks, from an activist to the owner of a marketing firm. This group, which meets with CA journalists bi-weekly, has helped us see Whitehaven in more context and the citizens have held us accountable for delivering on our goal to produce better coverage.
In the coming months, we are holding a virtual town hall in Whitehaven and using our citizens’ group to determine the best topic for that session. We will plan other events in Whitehaven.
We’re also hiring a reporter who starts June 1 to cover South Memphis,
Whitehaven and Westwood, looking specifically for stories about the institutions and issues that matter most to residents in those communities.
Later this year, we’re also committed to extending our Whitehaven effort to other communities, such as Frayser and Hickory Hill. We think better coverage from all of Memphis will make our content more valuable and introduce readers to people and institutions that are important to the region’s success.
This community commitment builds on the journalism we are already doing to make The CA your choice for news about Memphis.
For example, we want to help you better understand how Memphis works and how its public officials and leaders operate. Two recent examples: An explanatory and investigative story by Sarah Macaraeg on the Southwest Memphis families who have opposed the planned Byhalia Pipeline; an investigative story from Katherine Burgess and Sarah Macaraeg on Shelby Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. sponsoring a $450,000 grant for a non-profit and then selling the group computers from his firm.
You’ll also get smart reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic, such as this recent story by Daniel Connolly on why comparatively fewer Hispanics are taking the COVID-19 vaccine.
Tonyaa Weathersbee writes about a range of topics with a distinct point of view. She also introduces readers to distinctive Memphis personalities, such as in this recent column on a Memphis manicurist helping former felons get jobs at her nail salon.
Of course, The CA has also been on the front lines covering the national reckoning on race that sprang from the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last May.
The CA sought to add context and understanding to the evolving protest movement in Memphis. We profiled some of the key activists on the front lines and we did an explanatory story on the troubling phenomenon of cars and trucks plowing into protesters.
Our food and dining reporter, Jennifer Chandler, will make you feel as if you are an insider in the local restaurant scene. Two recent examples: Chandler’s recent story on the owner of soul-food emporium Alcenia’s and a piece on nine Black food entrepreneurs making their mark in Memphis.
While you may have at least heard about those stories, you may know little about The CA’S role as a community contributor. The CA last year donated $10,000 to efforts to erect a statue on Beale Street honoring the late journalist and civil rights icon Ida B. Wells. The newspaper also donated $4,000 to the Tigers Athletic Fund at the University of Memphis, from the proceeds from The CA’S “The Mighty Roar” book about the record-setting 2019 Tigers’ football season.
To produce such journalism – and contributions to make Memphis better – we need your support. We want you to consider becoming a digital subscriber and we are offering you a special deal to do so.
Our journalists know Memphis and strive to tell authentic, compelling stories about what it’s like to live, work and play in one of the nation’s most interesting places. I hope you’ll support our efforts to continue telling those stories.
Mark Russell is executive editor of The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at mark.russell@commercialappeal.com, 901/529-2302 and you can follow him on Twitter: @Markrussell44