In end of era, Bay State Banner sold

Big news from the world of local news in Boston: After almost 60 years at the helm, Mel Miller has decided it’s time for a changing of the guard at the Bay State Banner, the venerable weekly focused on the city’s Black community that he has owned since its founding in 1965. The 88-year-old publisher sold the paper this week to two sons of Roxbury who have vowed to “preserve its role and create its future.”

The new owners are Ron Mitchell, a veteran television editor and videographer at WBZ-TV, who stepped down from his job at the station last week, and television documentary producer Andre Stark, whose work includes credits at WGBH. Their plans include expanding operations with separate print editions in other areas of New England, an ambitious undertaking at a time when many newspapers are in retreat.

The sale was finalized on Tuesday, according to a story on the historic handoff posted Wednesday morning on the Banner’s website with a photograph of Miller and the new owners. The terms of the sale were not disclosed.

“I’ve been looking for some time for someone to step up and take over the job,” Miller said in the Banner article. “I think the Banner is needed more than ever. Both Ron and Andre are from old Roxbury families with deep ties to the community. They know the people, know the streets, know the issues we face. I have every confidence they will carry on the great work we’ve done for close to 60 years.”

Miller, who launched the paper 57 years ago with a partner who later left, has steered its coverage through everything from the civil rights era and Boston’s turbulent busing years to the development boom of recent decades that has touched all corners of the city.

The paper’s founding dates to the high point of the US civil rights movement, which was no accident, Miller said in an interview with CommonWealth on Tuesday.

“Passage of the Civil Rights Act was a great inspiration to us,” he said, reflecting on the paper’s launch one year after the 1964 law was enacted. “For the first time, federal law outlawed discrimination in employment and public accommodations. If you just think about that, it really opens up a lot of opportunities for economic development. We said, boy, this is really going to make a change. We have to have a publication from the community that keeps people informed and motivates them along the line,” he said.

The story on the Banner sale said the paper was also intended to “fill a news void” created by the shuttering in the previous decade of the Guardian, the Boston-based newspaper founded in 1901 by famed Black journalist William Monroe Trotter.

Miller continued until the end of his run to also serve as the Banner’s editor and wrote a weekly editorial. His was a take-no-prisoners voice that wasn’t afraid to ruffle feathers, including often rebuffing some popular left-leaning positions of the day.

In last week’s issue, he slammed the call, pushed by progressive activists, for a return to an elected school committee in Boston. The headline of his editorial said such a move would be “disastrous.”

“I’ve had the militants come after me in a very vicious way,” Miller said in the interview of the anger he has sometimes stirred. “But guess what? I didn’t move.”

In the Banner article, Mitchell, who will serve as publisher and editor, said plans include gradually expanding beyond Boston to three other regions – north of Boston, Connecticut, and Rhode Island – with a separate print edition in all four areas, each with some unique content.

Stark will serve as the chief operating officer for the new media enterprise, while also focusing on “producing video content for an expanded website and new livestream news and public affairs features,” according to the Bannerarticle.

The new owners have recruited former Boston Globe reporter and WGBH editor Ken Cooper to serve as an editorial consultant overseeing the planned expansion, while Yawu Miller, the current Banner senior editor – and a nephew of Mel Miller – will continue managing the Boston edition.

Mitchell and Stark are taking the reins at a challenging time for newspapers, whose revenue model has been battered by online digital advertising. Miller ran into tough times in the recession of 2007 to 2009, staying afloat with the help of a $200,000 loan from an arm of the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The loan generated some controversy, but was repaid in full.

The Banner article said debt and equity financing for the purchase came from Mill Cities Community Investment, a Black-run federally chartered community development financial institution run by Glynn Lloyd, the founder of City Fresh Foods.

The article said a notable example of the paper’s fearless journalism was a controversial headline, “Police Riot in Grove Hall,” which appeared above a 1967 story about Boston police officers storming a Roxbury welfare office and clubbing protesting welfare mothers.

“That story cemented the Banner’s reputation as a serious paper,” former state rep and historian Byron Rushing said in today’s article. “It took strong positions and stood up to the mainstream narrative. Not everyone always agreed with Mel Miller, but no one questioned his independence.”

“I just told the truth,” said Miller in the article. “That’s what we’ve always been about.”

MICHAEL JONAS

FROM COMMONWEALTH

Worcester charter school approved: The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted 7-4 to approve a new charter school in Worcester, ignoring overwhelming opposition from local officials.

– The Worcester Cultural Academy Charter School will be operated by the Old Sturbridge Village historical museum and rely on experiential learning involving central Massachusetts cultural institutions. It is the first new charter approved by the board since Jeff Riley became Education Commissioner five years ago.

– One of the no votes was Patrick Tutwiler, Gov. Maura Healey’s secretary of education. He said his no vote should not be interpreted as opposition to charters but concern about Old Sturbridge Village’s inexperience in dealing with multilingual students.

– Charters are funded with public dollars at the same level of per pupil spending as the districts where they are located. Local opposition focused heavily on fears the new charter will draw dollars away from existing public schools while catering to White students and not minorities, English language learners, and children with disabilities. Read more.

OPINION

No more Drinks to Go: Robert Mellion, executive director of the Massachusetts Package Store Association, says it’s time for the pandemic-era Drinks to Go policy to go. He says it has contributed to underage drinking. Read more.

FROM AROUND THE WEB             

BEACON HILL

State Police security details are still stationed outside former governor Charlie Baker’s home in Swampscott, two months after he left office. (Salem News)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

Boston plans to distribute $1 million to organizations that provide services to people returning to the community from prisons and jails. (GBH)

Boston’s Office of Police Accountability and Transparency has yet to approve any civilian complaint against the police department. (GBH)

As the Boston City Council kicks the tires of Mayor Michelle Wu’s plans to remake the city’s planning and development process, the mayor’s soaring vision is colliding with a demand for concrete details of how it would all work. (Boston Globe)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

WBUR interviews the author of a study that found 20 percent of patients, most of them women, refuse recommendations to take cholesterol-lowering statin drugs to reduce the risk of heart attack.

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

President Biden nominates Julie Su as US labor secretary to take Marty Walsh’s place. (New York Times)

Harvard professor Danielle Allen says we should make good on the Founders’ vision of a House of Representatives that grows in size with the population, something she says is “key to unlocking our present paralysis.” (Washington Post)

ELECTIONS

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot finished out of the running in her reelection bid yesterday, as former Chicago schools CEO Paul Vallas, who made crime a top issue, and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson took the top two spots in the nine-way preliminary and will advance to a final election runoff. (Chicago Sun-Times)

Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo, closing in on the end of his second four-year term, said he won’t seek reelection this fall. (Boston Globe)

The Framingham Democratic Committee voted to repudiate remarks by its chairman that, the Boston Herald reports, ​”​appeared to connect aborting children with disabilities to saving money on special education costs,” but it will not remove him from his post.

Salem Mayoral hopefuls, looking to succeed Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll for a shortened term, grappled with rising housing costs, an increase in the local tourist economy, the sudden growth of the city, and the local public school system in a Tuesday night forum. (MassLive)

EDUCATION

A civil rights group says the Boston Public Schools has stopped complying with a 1994 federal court order governing how the system services English language learners. (Boston Globe)

The state Inspector General told the Boston Public Schools to crack down on chronically late school buses under Transdev, which was the sole bidder for a recent five-year contract. (Boston Globe) Meanwhile, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education sent a letter on Friday to the district saying various failures in the transportation system are violating the educational rights of special education students. (Boston Herald)

TRANSPORTATION

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a close call between plans at Logan International Airport. (Associated Press)

With South Coast Rail construction on its way, the New Bedford Standard-Times breaks down potential state-funded noise mitigation options for affected residents like sound insulation, noise-wall installations, interior air-conditioning installation, and landscaping or fencing.

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Worcester’s annual Lakes and Ponds report found most of its primary bodies of water remained good or excellent quality, but last year’s statewide drought caused cyanobacteria blooms in two of the reservoirs. (Worcester Telegram)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

A one-time aide to a Republican Rhode Island candidate for governor has been fired only weeks after starting a new public affairs job in the office of Massachusetts US Attorney Rachael Rollins after racist and sexist tweets he sent while in college resurfaced. (Boston Globe)