By: E&P Staff The Bay State Banner, the black-oriented weekly that suspended publication July 9, could begin publishing again in another couple of weeks, thanks to the offer of a bailout loan by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
Banner founder and Publisher Mel Miller said over the weekend that he would accept Menino's offer of a $200,000 loan from the Boston Local Development Corp., a nonprofit administered by the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
"Let the Banner fail and deprive the community?'' Miller told the Boston Globe. "That's just foolish, and I'm not going to do that.''
In the last edition of Boston's only black-owned newspaper, Miller said the Banner, at 30,000 copies distributed free, had proven too small to sustain itself in the face of falling ad revenue.
Miller said the loan would help the paper survive while it arranges a new business plan with Next Street Financial LLC, a financial services company. Boston Local Development, the nonprofit arranging the loan, has made similar loans to local businesses, including a coffee shop and bicycle company.
Mayor Menino has often been criticized by the Banner, which at one point suggested in an editorial that he step down from office. Menino said he was not trying to influence the paper with the loan offer, but wanted to "help a business that is very important to the minority community,'' according to the Globe article by Megan Woolhouse.
Miller scoffed at any suggestion the paper would lose its independence because of the loan. "They say you're compromising yourself," he told the Globe. 'I'm compromising what?' I have lambasted the mayor every way but loose."
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here