A New Day Dawns for Black News

Barack Obama’s victory has inspired a newsier turn in the black press, Politico reports. Essence, the bestselling magazine among black women, will name its first full-time White House reporter as Ebony sends a journo to DC and sister mag Jet promises a Washington report in each issue. “Who we are is really evolving right now, in this post-civil rights era,” said the top editor at Ebony and Jet. “Our readers really need the black press.”

While some have accused the mainstream press of pro-Obama bias, black magazines won’t give him a free ride, an editor said: “We’ll be asking what he is going to do on specific issues that African-Americans are interested in, unemployment, AIDS, housing, health.” Newspapers' latest economic woes are helping black magazines do the job, too—they're picking up reporters left jobless after layoffs and press buyouts.