‘Farewell’: Richmond Free Press ceases publication
Richmond’s Black newspaper announced Thursday that it will end all publication this week after 34 years.
“This chapter in the life of the Richmond Free Press has come to a close. As we prepare to pivot, we want to express our profound gratitude to our loyal readers,” wrote Jean Boone, Free Press publisher, in a Facebook post.
Last week’s print edition was the outlet’s last hard-copy newspaper, according to the paper. The closure announcement was made in a final, online-only edition.
The close has garnered remarks from city and state officials.
In a lengthy statement on the paper's closure, Mayor Danny Avula called the Richmond Free Press "a beacon" that "made sure the fullness of Richmond’s story was part of the public record – not just the comfortable chapters. "
"Many of the advancements we have seen in and around Richmond – in public awareness, in civic consciousness, in conversations about race and equality - did not happen in isolation. They happened because institutions like the Free Press did the steady, disciplined work of publishing stories that others might overlook, documenting injustice, and elevating community voices," he wrote.
Newly elected Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones also called the paper’s closing “a loss for our Commonwealth” in a social media post.
“A pillar of Virginia’s Black community, it told our stories and demanded justice,” he wrote. “Growing up, my grandma Corrine had my dad bring copies home to Norfolk from Richmond as those pages carried our voice and our history.”
The Richmond Free Press was founded by Raymond H. Boone, Jean Boone’s late husband, after working for multiple Black newspapers, including the Richmond Afro-American. He became vice president of the Afro-American, which ran from 1941 to 1996, while teaching journalism at Howard University.
Raymond Boone left his professor position in 1992 to create the Free Press, which predominantly covered Black issues within Virginia and its capital.
“Richmond desperately needs a strong gust of fresh air to vigorously fan the expression of ideas about public policy and, in the process, to encourage wide-open uninhibited debate,”he wrote in the first edition of the paper.
“Simply put, the mission of the Richmond Free Press is to empower its readers.”
Raymond Boone died in 2014, leaving the paper in the hands of his wife.
“We have given our advertisers a high-quality environment to place their advertising to our responsive readers. Each week our advertising lineage has diminished Yet the quality remains,” she said in the Facebook post. “Payment has become slower and slower. Is it racism? Is the Free Press no longer relevant? And so, this chapter ends. Perhaps, dear Reader, we’ll meet again.”
The Richmonder had a content-sharing partnership with the Free Press.
Contact Reporter Victoria A. Ifatusin at vifatusin@richmonder.org
