Friday, Oct. 16 marks The Washington Informer’s 62nd anniversary, a significant milestone for a small, local, Black- and woman-owned community media company that still produces a weekly newspaper in print and continues to be distributed to readers across the DMV.
It’s inexplicable to some that The Informer hasn’t followed the path of so many other media companies, locally and throughout the U.S., whose doors have shuttered over the past decade.
To be exact, more than 1,000 newspapers have discontinued publishing over the past 10 years, and, according to Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative’s State of Local News 2025 study, the country lost nearly 3,500 local newspapers between 2005 and 2025, including more than 130 in the most recent year.
In 1964, D.C. was flush with news outlets that included The Washington Post, The Evening Star, and The Washington Daily News, not to mention the host of publications that served the surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia. Among the Black newspapers, there were The Washington Afro, The New Observer, and The Capital Spotlight, to which Dr. Calvin W. Rolark Sr. introduced The Washington Informer.
1964 was an exciting time for many Americans, but for Black Americans it marked a period of heated fights for civil rights in which strong voices on the streets, in the courtrooms, the pulpits, and the media needed to be heard and amplified. Locally, the fight for Home Rule in this majority-Black city was raging, and advocates who won the fight for D.C. residents to vote for president intensified their fight for a locally elected city government and to free local affairs from Congress’ control.
It wasn’t easy back then for Dr. Rolark to keep the doors open to ensure the voices of Black folks were heard, and it certainly isn’t easy today. National policies, including anti-DEI and other factors, have had a severe impact on revenue while the perpetuation of negative attitudes about media has harmed the trust of readers who once relied on national and local news to make important decisions.
Like generations of Black journalists and publishers before them, the staff of The Washington Informer continues to cover and report on the local community with determination and an unwavering commitment to its readers.
The Washington Informer team celebrates the legacy of those who came before and remains committed to telling our stories, amplifying our voices and preserving our history. As long as the community has stories to tell, The Washington Informer will continue to tell them, with the hope and confidence that the community’s support will remain strong for generations to come.
