By: Mark Fitzgerald After more than 50 years as the nation's best-known black-oriented daily newspaper, the Chicago Defender is going to weekly frequency.
Defender staffers learned of the decision earlier this week, a person close to the situation told E&P. The change to weekly publication was first reported by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Stella Foster.
The paper will move to Wednesday publication on Feb. 13, according to the report.
Defender Executive Editor Lou Ransom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Someone claiming knowledge of the Defender's plans said the paper will continue as a paid product. It faces competition with at least two strong weeklies targeting African Americans in the Chicago market, N'Digo and the Citizen newspapers, which have five flags.
The Defender has been owned since 2003 by Real Times Inc., a Detroit-based company.
Founded in 1905, the Defender was one of the most successful African American newspapers ever, circulating nationally and virtually single-handedly setting off the so-called Great Migration of black Southerners to the industrial North after World War I. It became a daily in 1956.
In recent decades, the paper has weakened visibly. Its circulation drifted to less than 20,000 by the mid-1990s. Its circulation is no longer audited by an outside firm.
Two years ago, it went from five-day frequency to four, eliminating its Tuesday edition.
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