(BALTIMORE – June 14, 2026) – Stop the presses.

I need to put down every political story, every Black business feature, every Black Wall Street update — and talk to you directly about something that has been gnawing at me for a long time.

The Math Doesn’t Lie.

Did you know that people pay $20 every four weeks to access the Baltimore Banner?

Twenty dollars. Every four weeks. That comes out to roughly $240 a year — flowing to a news outlet that, in too many cases, paints a distorted, incomplete, and sometimes disrespectful picture of Black Baltimore.

And I’m not just talking about the Banner. Let’s be clear: the Banner is staffed, in large part, by the same people who came from the Sun. Same rehash. Same framing. And here’s the kicker — they call BMORENews.com for sources and information. We are their resource. And yet the community funds them, not us.

I’m talking about the entire ecosystem of mainstream media that has profited for decades off our stories, our pain, our trauma — while doing precious little to amplify our power, our genius, or our humanity.

Now Here’s the Part That Hurts.

When it comes to Black media — when it comes to the Afro-American, when it comes to the Baltimore Times, when it comes to BMORENews.com — that per-person investment is damn near minus a dollar. At best.

We don’t support Black media. We don’t support the very media that defends us when our backs are against the wall. When the police shoot someone’s child, who calls? When a Black business owner is getting pushed out, who covers it? When a Black candidate is being ignored by the mainstream, who shows up with a camera and a microphone and no agenda?

We do. Black media does. BMORENews.com does.

Let’s Not Get That Twisted.

Before I go further, let me say this clearly: there are many people — many — who have supported BMORENews.com over the years, and I am grateful for every single one of them.

Black businesses. White businesses. Elected officials. Nonprofits. Community organizations. People across the full spectrum who understood the value of reaching Black Baltimore and did right by us. If their message was empowering to our community, we promoted it. If we found something to be foul, we stopped that, too. Anybody can make mistakes — the question is whether you’re willing to go back and correct them. We always have been.

We Showed Up When Nobody Else Did.

This is not abstract. Let me give you specifics.

Hoes Heights. That historic Black community nestled next to Roland Park — the very ground where redlining in Baltimore was born, when J. Barry Mahool introduced an ordinance in 1910 attempting to legally bar Black people from white neighborhoods and whites from Black neighborhoods. Ground zero of American apartheid. Three years ago, that same community contacted BMORENews and said: Help. They had been cut off from Rolling Avenue by a plastic barrier, causing daily harm to residents. That story didn’t trend anywhere. BMORENews covered it.

When Kenny Harris got killed — we stayed on it.

When Robert Lee Clay got killed — that fearless, strong Black man out there fighting for this community — we covered that story. Repeatedly. Unapologetically. Because someone had to.

We write about our history so that our people are not forgotten. Men like Rev. Vernon Dobson and Rev. Wendell Phillips — strong Black men who gave everything. Pat Scott, the last of the Goon Squad, has just gotten his wings. The father of my Morehouse brother, Robert Scott, is in Atlanta. These names matter. These lives matter. We put them on record.

Little Willie Adams — and the giant who came before him, Tom Smith, owner of the Smith Hotel, once the largest Black-owned hotel in the United States. How many people know that story? BMORENews tells it.

Whether the NAACP is in pocket or out of pocket. Whether the Urban League is in pocket or out of pocket. We are right there on the front lines, in the streets, on Pennsylvania Avenue, at Penn North, covering Freddie Gray, covering the Western District, covering the Eastern District.

We’ve Been Everywhere Our People Need Us.

We’ve been to the White House more than 60 times. Since 2010 — since the Obama administration — I have personally sent teams to cover the White House at least a dozen times when I couldn’t make it. We’ve built relationships at the highest levels of government.

I covered Jordan in 2002 as U.S. troops were landing to invade Iraq — alongside Arthur Murphy and eight other Black journalists from across the country. We have reported from Tanzania and Ethiopia. We have done mission work around the world.

And right here at home: Victor Pate in New York City. Gwen Levy in Baltimore. Natasha White down in PG County. Renny Bass right here in Baltimore — all of them on the front lines fighting for formerly incarcerated and incarcerated persons, for a fairer justice system, and against solitary confinement. BMORENews has covered every one of them.

Here’s a statistic I will say once, and I will say a million times: America is five percent of the world’s population — with twenty-five percent of the world’s incarcerated people. Thirty percent of those incarcerated people are Black, when Black people make up only thirteen percent of the national population. Something is fundamentally, profoundly wrong with that equation.

And we have covered it. We started our Love for L Prison Ministry back in 2006 and 2007 — reaching young people in the L section of the Baltimore City Jail. Fourteen to seventeen-year-olds charged as adults. It was the most rewarding mission work we have ever done. We saw them. We wrote about them. We didn’t look away.

Three Thousand Entrepreneurs. Nine Cities. Fifteen Years.

And let’s not forget the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards — now in its 15th year. Over 3,000 Black entrepreneurs and professionals honored, along with the people who support them regardless of race, across nine cities since 2011. BMORENews has been on the front lines of Black economic empowerment long before it was a trending hashtag.

Here’s Where It Gets Dangerous.

This isn’t just about journalism. It’s about political power. It’s about who controls the narrative — and who controls the politicians.

If Black people don’t fund Black media, Black media can’t sustain itself. And if Black media can’t sustain itself, there’s a vacuum. And guess who fills that vacuum? The same mainstream outlets that have never really been in our corner.

Think about Black elected officials. If they can’t raise money from Black people, they have to raise it from somewhere else. And once they take that money — guess what happens to their values? Guess who they become accountable to? The money follows the power. And right now, too much of that money is flowing away from us.

Twenty-Four Years. Ten Toes Down.

You don’t ever have to worry about BMORENews.com selling out.

For almost 25 years — since August 9, 2002 — we have stood on every decision we made in support of the people. For better or for worse. Were we wrong sometimes? Maybe. Did we win every race we covered? No. But we were always able to look you in the eye and tell you exactly why we took the position we took.

Not once in 24 years has a check from a corporation or a campaign changed what we published. Not once has political pressure caused us to pull a story we believed in. We have operated with integrity — from Sandtown to Capitol Hill, from Penn North to the White House, from West Baltimore to Burkina Faso.

We have been unapologetically, unequivocally, advocates for our people. That is unquestionable. Without a doubt. Without question.

So I’m Asking You Directly.

If you spent $240 this year on a publication that doesn’t love you — why haven’t you spent that same $240 with BMORENews.com?

You gave it to the Baltimore Banner without batting an eye. Not realizing those are the same people who call us for sources. Not realizing we are the institution that has been out here, in the cold, for a quarter century, covering the stories they won’t touch.

Can you find $10 a month? $25? Can you tell one person about the Afro, the Baltimore Times, BMORENews? Can you share our content and actually credit us? Can you send us a tip, a lead, a story that needs to be told?

Black media is not asking for charity. We are asking for what you already give to people who don’t have our best interests at heart. Redirect a fraction of your investment — toward your own community, your own story, media that will be in your corner when things get hard.

Nobody is coming to save us but us.

Support Black media. Damn it.

Because when things get hard — and they always do — we will be here.

We always have been.

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Doni Glover is the founder and publisher of BMORENews.com, now in its 24th year of covering Black Baltimore, and the founder of the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards, now in its 15th year. He is also the host of the Emmy-nominated Doni Glover podcast and The Doni Glover Show on WMAR-TV 2.

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