The ''New Pittsburgh Courier'' is a weekly

African-American newspaper African-American newspapers (also known as the Black press or Black newspapers) are news publications in the United States serving African-American communities. Samuel Cornish and John Brown Russwurm started the first African-American perio ...

based in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It is owned by

Real Times Real Times Media LLC is the owner and publisher of the ''Chicago Defender'', the largest and most influential African American weekly newspaper, as well as five other regional weeklies in the eastern and Midwestern United States. Its headquarters ...

. The newspaper is named after the original ''

Pittsburgh Courier The ''Pittsburgh Courier'' was an African-American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1907 until October 22, 1966. By the 1930s, the ''Courier'' was one of the leading black newspapers in the United States. It was acqu ...

'' (1907–65), which in the 1930s and 1940s was one of the largest and most influential African-American newspapers in the country, with a nationwide circulation of more than 350,000. After circulation declines in the 1950s and 1960s, the original ''Courier'' was purchased in 1965 by John H. Sengstacke, publisher of '' The Chicago Daily Defender,'' in 1966. He reorganized the paper under a new name—the ''New Pittsburgh Courier''—to avoid paying several outstanding tax bills and invoices. He later commented: He re-opened it in 1967 under the new name. The ''New Pittsburgh Courier'' joined Sengstacke's three other newspapers in a chain of prominent African-American publications, including the ''Defender''. In 1974 Sengstacke appointed Hazel B. Garland as the new editor-in-chief of the ''New Pittsburgh Courier'', making her the first African-American woman in history to be editor of a national newspaper. When asked about his decision, Sengstacke replied: "I have supreme confidence in Hazel, and believe that she will continue to do a great job as editor-in-chief as she did as city editor. She has proven herself over the many years of dedication to the Courier and the Negro cause. She will be a guiding force in leading this paper to bigger and better things in the future." Two years later, the paper won the John B. Russwurm Award for the best national African-American newspaper. Following Sengstacke's death in 1997, what was then a four-paper chain was held in a family trust until 2003. It was sold that year for nearly $12 million to Real Times, a group of investors with several business and family ties to Sengstacke. Among the new owners was Sengstacke's nephew Thomas Sengstacke Picou, who said in 2002 that his plans for the ''New Pittsburgh Courier'' include more emphasis on in-depth features and arts, creating a web presence—which neither it nor the ''Defender'' had at the time—and a change in its political outlook from liberal to "conservative independence".

References

External links

''New Pittsburgh Courier'' Online
African-American history in Pittsburgh African-American newspapers Newspapers published in Pittsburgh Publications established in 1966 {{Pennsylvania-newspaper-stub