i'm not sure i agree with your statement about investments in AA-targeted internet properties, tho. Whither goest MSBET? for that matter, BET.com is only now beginning to use its resources to be more than a video-delivery and tv-show promoting website.

Supporting an internet business is decidedly different from supporting brick-and-mortar businesses. the revenue streams are different and the demands by users of of the medium (for timely AND relevant content) seem to be a major stumbling block in terms of sustainability.

I'm hopeful for theRoot.com, given its backing by WaPo. But that same backing makes me give the site the side-eye because i'm not entirely convinced of their (WaPo's) ethos w/regard to Black culture.

Black Boomers have little or no connection to relevant news and information, primarily because (a) they/we rely on the MSM, who don't address our issues anymore; and (b) because we still treat regard the internet as a “play thing”– and we ain't got time to play. The result is an ill-informed population of Black folk who have no idea how or why we're ill-informed.

This is a dangerous proposition, IMO. It leaves us waiting for the MSM to inform us — in much the same way that Katrina victims were waiting for authorities to rescue them. We need information, but the MSM isn't going to provide it anytime soon. And if we as Black consumers aren't going to demand it in the form of Black television and radio, then we'd better get used to sitting on roof tops and waiting for the information to come to us.

Essence (at least pre-Katrina), and the Johnson Publishing clan were even worse IMHO; they HAD resources but treated the web as a direct-mail service to drive readers to their print issues. bad move.

Moreover, early attempts at Black information provision online didn't do well – NetNoir, everythingblack.com – because their target audience hadn't yet reached the web in numbers that could support them. Other properties that reached a moderate level of success were bought up by larger concerns (BlackVoices, Africana) that immediately diluted their message in order to “reach a broader audience”.

i think that Katrina was a wake up call for Black websites and bloggers – they realized the paucity of Black-oriented news available on the web and stepped up to meet the demand.

Instead of giving Michael Basden a nightly TV show, Cathy Hughes and TV One should have Bev Smith, or Warren Ballentine, Jesse Jackson Jr., Cynthia McKinney, Montel Williams, or even fast talking Roland Martin do a public affairs program, you know, something that will educate and uplift the community.