The publisher and CEO of the Baton Rouge Weekly Press, Ivory D. Payne, has met some of the most influential figures in the world, including Prince, Beyonce, Whitney Houston, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
“And now I’m meeting you guys,” Payne said recently before a classroom of journalism students at Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication.
Payne memorized his publication’s online link address, ready to recite it in a heartbeat to a prospective reader. He said it twice during the hour and 15 minutes he spoke to the room of around 20 students, and he left a stack of the week’s print edition up for grabs.
“If you want to relay something that’s happening…news that’s happening in the community, in your state, in your city, just around the corner, you have to believe that you are the best storyteller,” Payne said.
Payne had been invited as a guest lecturer to inspire the next generation of journalists and to share with them the important role of community newspapers.
The students listened as Payne, who is also a second-generation Baptist preacher, told the story of how The Weekly Press began about 46 years ago in his family’s living room. Payne and his two brothers thought they were sitting down for Bible study until their father set down a trash bag full of newspapers and delivered the big news. They were starting a family business.
“I just wanted to watch cartoons,” said Payne, then about 14 years old. “But he said, ‘We’re going to be in the newspaper business, and all of my sons are going to be graphic designers.’”
His father bought an office on Scotland Avenue, complete with three rooms: an executive office, a layout room and a room for his mother to write her stories, Payne said.
Payne, a graduate of Scotlandville High School and Southern University, was an aspiring architect. In 1990, that passion took him all the way to Columbus, Ohio, where his brother lived. But the architecture industry was slow, he said, and the bills had to get paid. So, Payne went back to what he knew and landed a job at a local paper. He worked for the next 23 years at several publications, including The Columbus Dispatch and the Columbus Post.
In 2013, Payne moved back to Baton Rouge after his parents became sick. After spending more than 20 years away from home, Payne missed the kindness of Louisianans. He missed the hospitality, food and entertainment. “We are one of the greatest,” he said of his home state.
Payne saw his return as an opportunity to keep the family business going.
Today, the Weekly Press is the oldest African American-owned newspaper in Baton Rouge. Payne runs a small newsroom with an assortment of volunteer writers yet publishes articles on his website almost daily. The print edition is published weekly. The publication covers a mixture of national and local news and claims a readership of 60,000.
Payne said his father, Ivory J. Payne, now 89 years old, is still sharp and is the paper’s best salesperson.
“My father still drives,” Payne said. “He still preaches. He still comes to the office and tries to take over.”
Every morning, he wakes up at 4:00 to pray and then phones his broad network of connections across the community. These connections are vital for the success of his small newsroom. Without full-time reporters, Payne relies on his community to keep him informed and on top of the news. Payne said he wouldn’t have a newspaper today if not for the kindness of his friends.
“We are just starting over again,” Payne said. “We are learning to meet different people in every part of the city. I believe that’s why I’m here today.”
Editor’s Note: The Weekly Press is a media partner in the Louisiana Collegiate News Collaborative, a new, LSU-led initiative that pairs media organizations throughout the state with eight universities whose journalism students will cover local communities. The students’ work will be published by the media partners with funding provided by the Henry Luce and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur foundations. The universities that are part of the collaborative include LSU and Southern universities in Baton Rouge, Dillard and Xavier universities in New Orleans, Southeastern University in Hammond, Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Grambling State University in Grambling, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. The media partners are located in or near the communities that will be covered.
