Multimedia platform
Our inventive multimedia platform will utilize the latest technological tools to present the true stories and issues facing New England’s Black and Brown Americans. To achieve this goal, MSE will need to build on Massachusetts’ most historic African American news media outlet. Created in 1965, the Banner is a valuable conduit to Boston’s neighborhoods of color—a voice that is needed now more than ever.
The greatest challenge to the Banner’s longevity is reaching an expanded younger audience
whose news sources are increasingly viewed from online and smartphone media platforms.
Marketing techniques
Immersing this historic weekly into our newest media platform and deploying the latest mobile marketing techniques will provide the Banner with a way to reach all of New England’s African American, English-speaking Latino, and the progressive white Gen X and Gen Z demographic.
This will introduce the paper to new audiences digitally and in print, as well as make it available on mobile devices and tablets. Further, short format news blasts will be distributed on popular social media sites like, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook & Instagram, as well as cable and streaming services like Roku.
These changes will empower the Banner to reach a younger demographic.
MSE Legacy
We will expand the core of the Banner from local (Boston) to all of New England with correspondents from other news bureaus in the area reporting pertinent information for people of color throughout the region. Further, we will include licensed African American content from other Black newspapers throughout the country that focus on national issues affecting audiences of color.
As a brand, the Bay State Banner represents recognizable achievement through perseverance and offers ongoing information for the readership to activate positive personal and professional change in their own lives. News elements on the platform and internet/ mobile digital media products will all enable MSE to deepen viewer loyalty and diversify revenue streams such as live and streamed events, creating a solid platform on which advertisers can build profitable relationships with viewers.
MSE Expansion
We will transfer the weekly from its current one-state format into a new six-state regional powerhouse.
In addition, we will add an online newscast that can be broadcast in thirty-minute segments and a half-hour investigative community affairs show. This in-depth program will allow us the opportunity to bring attention to historically overlooked issues facing the region’s urban
population.
Currently, no news outlets cater to the Black and Brown populations in New England outside of Massachusetts. This provides a great opportunity for MSE to enlarge the scope of news and information services catered to this demographic.
