Harvard's Gates launching national black newspaper by Zuzana Moravcova

On Monday, the Washington Post Co. released a new online magazine about genealogy, aimed at a black audience, featuring commentary from leading black writers. The magazine is called "The Root," and began coming together in October. The web site is a brain child of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Post Co. Chairman Donald Graham. When Graham got the idea of The Root to Gates several months ago, "it took me precisely one nanosecond to say, 'I would love to do that,'" Gates said in an interview on Friday. Gates, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, told The Associated Press: "We see ourselves as a daily black newspaper in a magazine format with three channels â€" news, views, and roots, and it's the roots channel that ... makes us completely unique." He added that the goal is to provide a forum "as diverse as the black barber shop or black beauty parlor," and that the genealogy component is key to the magazine's mission. "It's vital for African Americans to be able to recreate their family trees," he said. The Root is gong to feature news and opinions on black issues in the United States and worldwide and to include a genealogy application designed to help black users build their family trees. The way Gate got an idea of launching this kind of magazine reaches back to his childhood, when he first saw copies of the black-oriented Baltimore Afro-American in his local black-run barber shop, he started longing for a national black newspaper...The Root will be a 21st-century version of a national black newspaper, Gates said, featuring articles from notable black writers, such as the New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell. Among other prominent blacks who have launched news and information sites aimed at black users, radio star Tom Joyner launched BlackAmericaWeb in 2001 that features news and commentary on issues of interest to black users. "I am happy to be joining the distinguished company of Tavis Smiley and Tom Joyner and Ebony and Jet," Gates said, and added that The Root will be unique because it will be the only black-oriented news and commentary site to have the genealogy application. He expects The Root to lose money initially, "but hopefully not for as many years as Slate." Slate, founded in 1996, did not experience its first full year of profitability until 2007. The Root has signed up HBO and Coca-Cola as initial sponsors.

by Zuzana Moravcova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

Cantell TV is the fastest growing provider of digital broadcasting coupled with telecommunications, allowing people to easily control, view, upload and share digital content through proprietary interface coupled with free phone calls. Cantell TV is committed to delivering infinite choices to your world of entertainment at the tip of your fingers.