Because the Amsterdam Information celebrates being in circulation since 1909, the subsequent 115 years will begin off in good arms. Aaron Foley arrives from the PBS NewsHour to function information editor whereas Damaso Reyes rises from investigative editor to govt editor.
Their appointments coincide with crippling uncertainty within the information business as smaller newsrooms shutter and bigger organizations conduct mass layoffs. However Foley says journalists of coloration like himself have at all times fought to maintain their “heads above water.”
“As a lot uncertainty as there’s within the enterprise, what retains me going is the truth that you need to hold combating to get these tales informed,” mentioned Foley. “I felt like with Amsterdam Information, there was extra of a possibility to get a few of the tales I’d prefer to see informed right here than [at] a bigger establishment.”
Racial fairness journalism is a welcome sight to the Detroit native, who remembers occasions when he was the one Black individual or the one queer individual within the newsroom the place he labored. In reality, the Black press is in Foley’s DNA—his mother was a reporter and editor on the Michigan Chronicle, his house state’s oldest Black newspaper.
“That was not simply my first publicity to her profession, however simply any profession,” he mentioned. “I at all times admired what she did. However then I began writing myself—little brief tales as a child—and realized that I preferred it sufficient the place I needed to ultimately pursue it alone.”
Foley ended up finding out journalism at Michigan State with the intent to inform Black tales. That want has taken him far within the business. He was the inaugural director of CUNY Newmark’s Black Media Initiative. Foley authored “Boys Come First,” a critically acclaimed novel about three homosexual Black millennial males. He was even Detroit’s first “chief storyteller,” an official metropolis function of documenting and highlighting the experiences of the Motor Metropolis’s 200-some neighborhoods.
For the previous 4 years, Foley has lived in New York Metropolis within the traditionally Black neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
And talking of Mattress-Stuy, the Brooklyn neighborhood’s personal Damaso Reyes now heads a newsroom he’s been part of since his teenagers..
“I began my profession on the Amsterdam Information almost 30 years in the past as a freelancer after I was nonetheless in highschool and I’m excited that I’ve the chance to proceed my journey as a frontrunner of one in all America’s finest newspapers,” he mentioned.
Reyes spent the previous two years build up Blacklight, the AmNews’ fledgling investigative unit. His brainchild has grown to a employees of three, producing long-form items about bail reform, labor apprenticeship, and COVID-19 security.
“It’s an thrilling time to be on the Amsterdam Information and I’m honored to have been chosen as a custodian of this vital legacy,” mentioned Reyes. “The Black press is extra vital than ever and my objective throughout my time as govt editor is to verify our persons are properly knowledgeable and properly represented.”Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public security for the Amsterdam Information. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps hold him writing tales like this one; please take into account making a tax-deductible reward of any quantity in the present day by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
