Tracie Powell on investing in the future of journalism

Tracie Powell is the founder and CEO of The Pivot Fund, a venture philanthropy organization dedicated to investing $500 million into independent BIPOC-led community news.

Earlier this month, Tracie’s organization invested $150,000 into the Baltimore Beat, a black-owned and woman-lead alternative newspaper. The investment comes after The Pivot Fund has already committed to providing $2 million to news organizations serving Black, Hispanic, and Asian American audiences in Georgia.

In this episode of Black Journalists on Journalism, she talks with Zuri about how she came to be a professional journalist, her background covering media policy and legislative issues, and when she developed the idea for The Pivot Fund.

We also dig into why she invested in the Baltimore Beat. (Full disclosure: Zuri works in Baltimore at The Baltimore Banner.) And we talk about the advice she finds herself giving to news publishers trying to survive this media environment.

Follow Tracie on X @TMPowell or on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traciepowell/.

Interested in being on the show? Email [email protected].

More about Donnell Suggs: Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Donnell Suggs is the Editor in Chief of The Atlanta Voice, the city's longest-running Black-owned newspaper. A father and husband, Donnell has wasted years of his life supporting the New York Mets and Jets.

More about Zuri Berry: Zuri is the owner and principal producer of ZMC Podcasts. He has been a journalist for two decades, working as a reporter, producer, and editor, with stops in California, Boston, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., and now Baltimore. He’s originally from San Francisco.

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