The Black News Channel is Shutting Down

Black News Channel is officially closing the curtains and shutting down. The independent cable news channel gave a voice to underrepresented individuals and initially launched in 2020.

The National Association of Black Journalists announced Friday that the network was ending, saying it “learned that plans are in the works to develop a solution to provide employees with their last three weeks of pay. NABJ is exploring ways to assist our members impacted by the closing.”

The channel had been on a steady decline and could not compete with channels like FOX and CNN since their channel was only in 52 million homes compared to 80 million like the other networks.

Led by billionaire Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Kahn, the channel recruited top talents like Marc Lamont Hill and Charles M. Blow. Blow says that he hoped the program would be a “space for Black news, that doesn’t have architecture of the larger culture around it.”

Hill chimed in, “It is gratifying to be able to fill a void, to be able to step in and say we have been neglected. We have an incredible assignment as a network, and that is to tell these stories that legacy cable networks haven’t been committed to telling.”