By: (AP) Longtime community advocate Paul Cobb has bought the Oakland Post, a weekly newspaper.
Cobb, who met with his staff on Friday, said there is a need for a black-owned newspaper in Oakland "because the black community wants to know who is being recognized for their contributions, and we feel it's important to project more positive images."
Cobb led the Oakland Citizens Committee for Urban Renewal and was a mayoral appointee on the Board of Education.
"We are going to continue to report on the causes and concerns of blacks, but we also want to appeal to citizens in general who want to know about the issues in our community," he said. "There are some stories, such as the salaries at City Hall, that may not appear to be so-called black stories, but they are of interest to blacks because a lot of us are paying taxes here in Oakland."
Cobb, a former Sunday columnist for the Oakland Tribune, worked for the Post as a young civil rights activist in 1965. He also has served as a columnist and religion editor for the Post. Cobb said the newspaper plans to keep distributing its free editions in Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Richmond.
The Post was founded in 1963 by the late businessman and attorney Thomas L. Berkley. Berkley's daughter, Gail, will continue as executive editor.
The Post is among more than 210 black newspapers in the United States, according to the Washington-based National Newspaper Publishers Association.
There are a number of other black-owned newspapers in Oakland, where blacks comprise about 36 percent of the population.
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