Impact snapshot from a Press Forward grantee newsroom

Lisa Snowden-McCray

Who: Lisa Snowden, editor-in-chief and co-founder, Baltimore Beat

Where: Baltimore, Md. 

What: Baltimore Beat was started in 2017 after the demise of Baltimore City Paper, a 40-year-old alt-weekly newspaper. It is a Black-led newspaper and online news outlet. The Beat became a nonprofit in 2019, and received a gift of $1 million from a local family foundation to re-launch in 2020. The Beat publishes a free print edition every other week to keep readers engaged, especially those with limited internet access. Kori Skillman, a Report for America corps member, will report on police from a community perspective.

Why: The Beat’s mission is to honor the tradition of the Black press and the spirit of alt-weekly journalism with reporting that focuses on community, questions power structures, and prioritizes thoughtful engagement with readers. “We aim to be a news outlet for everyone,” said Snowden. “We also aim to think differently about power and how it dictates whose story is told.”

How: The Beat recently won an award from Baltimore Magazine for Best Outreach. Here’s how they earned that award through extensive community engagement:

A Beat Box

• Inspired by community pantries and refrigerators, Baltimore Beat created “Beat Boxes” as a place to distribute its newspapers and allow people to share resources with others. People have left items such as bottles of water, hand warmers and snacks in the boxes for others to take. There are now 52 boxes around Baltimore, most funded through donations from the T. Rowe Price Foundation and United Way of Central Maryland. All boxes have Narcan and fentanyl test strips, and recently one of the Beat’s employees had to use Narcan out of one of the boxes to revive someone who was overdosing, according to Snowden.

A workshop at the Lexington Market produced by the Beat in partnership with the Baltimore Museum of Art. Photo by Myles Michelin.

• To mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Freddie Gray in police custody and the Baltimore Uprising that followed, the Beat partnered with the Baltimore Museum of Art to use the public space at Lexington Market to talk to Baltimoreans about their memories of the time. The Beat also collaborated with photographer Devin Allen to put on a gallery exhibition at the museum titled “Heavy with History.” 
• Snowden says she is a fan of meeting people where they are. The Beat had themed karaoke events before the pandemic, and recently has hosted “casual talk-backs” at Current Space Garden Bar, a museum with an outdoor garden space, to explain their reporting. The talk-backs are followed by dance parties in the garden.

Beat Goes On Beer

The Beat has even experimented with a collaboration with a local brewery, Peabody Heights, on a fruited ale called “The Beat Goes On,” with an image of a newsman calling out “Extra! Extra!” next to a Beat Box. Snowden says that’s already brought in $1,100 in extra revenue.

Quotable: “Press Forward funding ensures we pay our team so that we have the stability and security to continue our work. Money means that we can dream and think and educate and engage. We are spending money in ways we know will bring even more back.”