2005 Annual Report - Ethnic Media Content Analysis

Started in 1909, this Harlem-based weekly tabloid is widely considered the leader among African-American newspapers across the country. It's aimed at African-American New Yorkers and is available on the newsstand, or by subscription for roughly $35 a year. It reports a circulation of 30,000.²⁴ The News ran the fewest front-page stories on the days we measured, 67 in all.²⁵

If the Pakistan Post is global in perspective, the Amsterdam News sits at the other end of the continuum. Its coverage is overwhelmingly based on happenings in and around New York, with 63% of its stories having a local geographic focus. Another 34% had a national focus. A scant 3% (two stories) of the pieces we looked were about countries black immigrants come from, a very broad category. The two stories with a "home region" geographic focus both concerned the problems in Haiti in 2004. Otherwise the paper had no stories with a geographic focus outside the U.S. But the paper considers coverage of the Caribbean to be so important for readers that it devotes a weekly page to news from the region.²⁶

The paper's primary focus on local issues makes for a significant distinction between the African-American press and any immigrant press. Unlike the other publications we looked at, the Amsterdam News was published in English for a population that is largely U.S.-born. It is a local paper, and also naturally more of a supplement to other news outlets than a primary source. It's more of a local magazine than a local newspaper, as is clear from the topics covered.

Geographic Focus of Amsterdam News

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Source: PEJ Research, numbers reflect total of 67 stories

Topics Covered by Amsterdam News

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Source: PEJ Research, numbers reflect total of 67 stories

Politics and government received more coverage than anything else (43% of stories), but that coverage wasn't about stump speeches by President Bush or Senator Kerry. The paper paid close attention to the Democratic primaries, with ten stories about the fate of the contenders during the primary season and with special attention going to the Rev. Al Sharpton. Sharpton's name appeared in the headlines of six of the ten stories. The paper also focused on more local politics, like the candidacy of Adam Clayton Powell for Congress, and the standing in the African-American community of Governor Jim McGreevey of New Jersey.²⁷

Outside of politics, the paper focused on domestic issues (34% of stories) with more local touch. Education and local economic conditions figured heavily into the story count, with education stories being focused on the New York City Schools - everything from the opening of a new school in Harlem to the question of social promotion of students. The labor movement, barely covered in much of the mainstream press, is alive and well in terms of coverage in the News. Land development issues received coverage and, of course, local crime stories appeared on the front page, but many of those dealt with problems the community had with police actions. The paper also looked at the issue of race on many different planes, from the divide between black and white America, in January, to Bill Cosby's controversial comments in May, to former President Ronald Reagan's legacy among blacks in June. All those topics appear in the mainstream press, but the coverage would have been drastically different. Other papers, particularly the mainstream press, did not have covered so closely tied to the communities and concerns of African American New Yorkers.²⁸

Interestingly, the New York-based paper ran only one front-page story on the issue of terrorism in the days we examined it.