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At first glance, Crystal Good鈥檚 resume may not paint her as an obvious candidate to become a newspaper publisher. Good spent years building a career as a poet, performer, and lobbyist in her home state of West Virginia.

鈥淚鈥檝e published a handful of bylines in my life,鈥� she says. Yet, Good is the founder and publisher of , a newspaper that Good says is by, for, and about the Black community in West Virginia, a state that is about 89% White.

Good, who is Black, has created this publication in response to the fact that, in 2019, West Virginia did not have a single outlet to serve its minority or ethnic populations. Even though 鈥�,鈥� a project from the University of North Carolina (UNC) Hussman School of Journalism and Media, has noted a rise in the number of new U.S. media offerings aimed at various ethnic groups, West Virginia was still a news desert for its Black community.

鈥淢ost of West Virginia culture is reflected through a White lens,鈥� Good says. 

That鈥檚 because 鈥渕ainstream鈥� culture is written with a White viewpoint and audience in mind, which creates a huge information gap for everyone who isn鈥檛 White.

West Virginia is currently home to 85 local newspapers, but the West Virginia Press Association counts only three Black journalists in the state.

To bridge those gaps, startup news organizations have been launched across the country, fueled by initial grants and funding from philanthropic foundations and news initiatives. Even as these new publications grow in both staff and readership, long-term sustainability remains in question.

The current media landscape serves the population who can pay for the news. That population is White, wealthy, and mostly liberal, according to Nikki Usher, author of News for the Rich, White, and Blue: How Place and Power Distort American Journalism. 

鈥淭hat鈥檚 dangerous,鈥� Usher explains, 鈥渂ecause it creates inequity in the stories that get told.鈥�

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e seeing is a filtering, or a clearing of the trough. When you鈥檙e separating curds and whey, you get excellent news for certain people and not so good news or misinformation for others,鈥� she says.

But it also creates a profit incentive to steer published stories to wealthier demographics, she says.

鈥淲e know that liberals care about progressive social issues, and they want to be informed about them,鈥� Usher says. 鈥淎ccording to most polling numbers, they are more likely to actually support and pay for journalism. I think that there is a lot of White liberal guilt about not knowing 鈥榯he other,鈥� and that鈥檚 a profit margin.鈥� 

Usher says we can see it happening in some national news outlets when it seems like they are trying to explain Black people to White people. 

鈥淵ou can see this in articles like 鈥�,鈥欌�� she says. Those articles serve a specific population.

But that鈥檚 not who Good is trying to serve with . The publication exists as an email and online newsletter that can also be downloaded as a PDF via Substack, along with an occasional print edition. In each of the formats in which it is released, it is making a move to bridge a massive information gap in the state’s larger news ecosystem. The assortment of formats offers the audience a variety of ways to engage with the publication and its brand as well as options at different price points. 

West Virginia is currently home to 85 local newspapers, but the West Virginia Press Association counts only three Black journalists in the state. , and only two since 1950. The last one, the . 

The traditional media in the city is not really informing them on how to get involved civically

Good鈥檚 motivation to build a newspaper for the Black community is rooted in her teenage ambition to own that last Black-owned newspaper. In 1991, when she was 17, she asked her father, who was working at WCHS-TV as one of the state鈥檚 only Black news directors, to reach out to the Beacon Digest to ask if Good could buy the paper. The paper was printing mostly wire stories and ads, she says, and she thought she could do a better job running it. Neither she nor her father had a lot of money at the time, but Good thought that if the Digest said yes, she could come up with the money somehow.

鈥淭hey said no,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut at 17, I recognized you could do news differently.鈥� 

When the opportunity to learn different ways to do the news came her way, she took the leap. . The NewStart Program helps newspaper owners and founders develop revenue streams to keep their publications profitable.

鈥淲e bring people into the program and teach them all the things they need to know to diversify revenue sources,鈥� says Jim Iovino, an assistant professor at West Virginia University and leader of the program. 鈥淲e teach them about media leadership. We teach them new ways that people are doing community journalism across the country. Also, we鈥檙e really trying to find a new level of sustainability.鈥� 

Throughout her time in the program, Good studied business models of different news startups. One that inspired her was NOISE Omaha in Nebraska, which has served the mostly Black community of North Omaha since April 2018, and which started out as a zine.

We鈥檝e found that a lot of people who support, donate, and interact with us are White liberals

鈥淭he zine was our first product,鈥� says Myles A. Davis, the organization鈥檚 president and executive director. 鈥淚t was a cost-effective way to spread information.鈥�  distributes across social media and online platforms, as well as via radio and print editions, all as a way to make the news more accessible to its audience.

In June 2017, the Listening Post Collective, a team that offers tools, support, and learning opportunities to help revitalize local news across the U.S., conducted an assessment in North Omaha and discovered that the Black community there experienced an information gap. 鈥淭hey found that traditional media was not giving the community what they needed to thrive,鈥� Davis says.

Prior to the formation of NOISE Omaha, The Omaha Star was the sole newspaper that served the Black community in the city, and it had done so for 80 years. The paper presents the African American community鈥檚 perspective, and is a veritable beacon of who鈥檚 who in the community, where they鈥檙e working, and who is rapidly becoming a local sports star. But Davis, pointing to an , saw a gap in the paper鈥檚 coverage that needed filling.

鈥淭he traditional media in the city is not really informing them on how to get involved civically, how to develop their communities, about jobs or education or housing or health,鈥� Davis says. 鈥淲e set out to start providing those things specifically for Black and Brown people. It also serves as education for Omaha residents as a whole, because everyone needs to be educated on these topics and how disproportionately North Omaha is affected in many ways.鈥�

Although NOISE Omaha鈥檚 coverage is focused on the Black community, current donations reflect the premise of Usher鈥檚 book, coming mostly from a White liberal audience. 

鈥淲e鈥檝e found that a lot of people who support, donate, and interact with us are White liberals,鈥� Davis says. 鈥淢ost of our Instagram followers are White women.鈥�

鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we wanted to make a concerted effort to expand coverage鈥� from who鈥檚-who-style stories to more issue-focused pieces and explainers, Davis says. 鈥淭he coverage serves and determines the audience and the support.鈥� 

NOISE Omaha is now experimenting with various funding strategies. It relies on a combination of individual donations and multiyear grants, which creates concerns about finding consistent, stable funding for long-term sustainability.

Many news startups struggle to build a steady revenue stream as they find their footing with their audiences. Philanthropic donations are helpful, especially at the launch, but at some point, independent publications have to sustain themselves and be just that: independent. They鈥檙e not owned by a deep-pocketed corporation or other organization. The goal is to not rely on any one revenue stream, but instead to create multiple ways to support themselves, including donations and memberships.

The media landscape has been shifting for years as newspapers struggle to adapt to online formats. According to the UNC鈥檚 reporting, from 2005 to 2020, more than one-fourth of newspapers in the United States disappeared. To 鈥渢hwart the rise of news deserts鈥濃�攁reas without any local news coverage鈥攁 number of startup publications began to pop up across the nation, moving away from the old subscription- and ad-based models to newer membership ones. 鈥淏ut membership is just another way to say subscription,鈥� Usher says. Both models offer access to content for a fee, but subscriptions are typically transactional, whereas to which discounts and other perks are offered.

Davis hopes to find a way to grow NOISE Omaha so the publication isn鈥檛 鈥渞elying on people so affluent they can give out $300 million a year.鈥� That鈥檚 not the audience NOISE Omaha serves, but that鈥檚 who is paying a significant portion of the bills right now, he says. 

In West Virginia, Good also finds herself experimenting a lot in the organization鈥檚 startup phase. 

鈥淚鈥檓 building the restaurant and serving pepperoni rolls out the back window until we figure it out,鈥� she says, drawing a metaphorical parallel to a distinctly West Virginian dish.

Figuring it out requires Good to listen to her local community and to other new media entrepreneurs. 

鈥淚鈥檓 gathering data from potential readers and the media landscape of West Virginia,鈥� Good says. One challenge for Good is serving the poor population in a largely rural state where internet access is spotty. 鈥淩eaching people in a state where the average income is $23,000 is tough,鈥� she says. 鈥淲ho am I to ask people for money?鈥�

鈥淧laces that can鈥檛 or won鈥檛 pay for news create challenges for news organizations,鈥� Usher says. Asking people to pay a membership fee for access to stories that concern them can feel like a lot to ask when people鈥檚 budgets are stretched thin.

At the moment, Black By God is funded solely by Good and organizations that donated to her inaugural Juneteenth 2021 issue, for which she was also extended a line of credit from Doug Reynolds, the owner of several newspapers across West Virginia. Good is currently working through a program by Tiny News Collective, a national collaborative project that provides a stipend and access to tools to help build the publication鈥檚 infrastructure. Good at first charged $5 for a PDF version of the Juneteenth 2021 issue, but took down the paywall when she realized it was preventing people from reading it鈥攐nly 20 people downloaded the issue. Since the paywall was removed, the issue has been downloaded 4,000 times across the state.

Good is looking for ways to gain greater visibility so the wider Black community in West Virginia can access Black By God. Her goal is to build a cost-effective platform while also developing the personality of the publication. In the process, Good hopes that Black By God can be a place to foster the talent of young Black journalists: 鈥淚 want them to say, 鈥業 wrote my first byline for Black By God.鈥欌赌�

鈥淲ho reports the news is who shapes the narrative,鈥� Usher says.