Publishing veteran Bill Tompkins will get a crack at moving Black newspapers forward as he’s been named president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the umbrella organization for America’s Black newspapers.

Tompkins has 19 years of experience with the {Washington Post} serving as vice president of marketing and director of national advertising among other roles. After leaving the {Post}, he moved on to Kodak to become chief marketing officer of its entertainment imaging business unit. Tompkins, whose first day on the job was July 2, said that both experiences, as unique as they were, prepared him for this endeavor.

That’s what Grandma used to say, most often on a hot afternoon in late summer when even the neighborhood pool was painfully old.  Fast forward to today, you are an adult reading this because you are either interested, curious, or bored with everything else in your life at the moment.  Whatever you are, don’t be bored.

North Side business, American Chemical is celebrating its 25th year of operation.

The adhesive distributer and manufacturer's founder Dennis Werneke credits the success of the company with their ability to listen to their customers and problem solve through their challenges.

Pictured: Dennis Werneke and STEP-UP intern Faduma Ali

By supporting Black-owned businesses, we hold the keys to our own economic prosperity.

When reflecting upon the day to day struggles and hardships of African Americans, the words of rapper, Tupac Shakur come to mind: "Trying to make a dollar out of fifteen cents. It's hard to be legit and still pay your rent." This quote symbolizes the dilemma that many African Americans face while trying to survive and support their families in today's global economy. Here in Minnesota and across this nation, African Americans are under-represented amongst those who are gainfully employed and over-represented amongst those who are incarcerated in local jails and in state and federal prisons. What it boils down to is the fact that Black people need jobs, not jails.

I’ve said it before – we are spoiled rotten.  Reviewing Nielsen’s latest Cross-Platform Report, How We Watch from Screen to Screen, I can’t help but smile and remember the earlier days of “watching television.”  (You, know the one screen, the only option we had). I suspect a good many of you sometimes get a bit nostalgic, too (even though now we probably would be hard-pressed to part with any of our current technological conveniences).  Before flat screens, HD, satellite, DVR, cable, hundreds of “channels” and the internet, plus a growing number of devices to watch “TV” – we had one, maybe two (if you were lucky) TV “sets” in the house. 

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Highly-respected media and entertainment executive William G. Tompkins, Jr. has been name president and chief executive officer of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a federation of more than 200 Black-owned publications.

Pictured: William G. Tompkins, Jr., President and CEO of NNPA

NNPA Chairman Cloves Campbell, publisher of the Arizona Informant, said Tompkins was selected from an impressive field of candidates screened by Carrington & Carrington, a Chicago-based executive search firm.