The short run of the Baltimore Beat, an alternative weekly newspaper, is over.
“Ugh terrible stupid news. Our publisher has decided to stop publishing the Baltimore Beat. The paper is over,” Brandon Soderberg, the newspaper’s managing editor said Tuesday on Twitter.
Lisa Snowden-McCray was the editor-in-chief of The Baltimore Beat, which is shutting down immediately after just a four-month run. (Twitter)
“We launched the Baltimore Beat in November 2017 in an effort to provide a new alternative, independent journalistic voice to the city. We’re proud of the work we’ve done but, unfortunately, advertising support hasn’t been sufficient to sustain us,” said the Beat in a statement. “As a result, we are closing the Beat effective immediately. Thank you to our readers and advertisers and all those who reached out to help. We’re grateful for the opportunity and regret that we are unable to continue.”
Baltimore resident Kevin Naff, of Brown, Naff Pitts Omnimedia, which publishes the Washington Blade, the oldest LGBT newspaper in the country, published the Beat.
Lisa Snowden-McCray was the Beat’s editor-in-chief. She, along with several other former members of Baltimore City Paper, the alternative weekly, which shuttered after 40 years in Nov. 2017, birthed the Beat.
“We did really great work in a short time with limited resources,” Snowden-McCray, who was previously a freelance reporter for the AFRO, wrote on Twitter.
During an interview with Baltimore Magazine in Jan., Snowden-McCray laid out her vision for the short-lived weekly newspaper.
“What is a priority to me, is to keep pushing to get new voices into the paper, and give people a platform for stories that aren’t being told anywhere else,” Snowden-McCray said.
“It’s a gamble, but journalism is a gamble everywhere these days.”
