Black News Channel is shutting down after originally launching in 2020 and will file for bankruptcy, according to an email sent to staff on Friday.
Billionaire Shad Khan, Black News Channel’s majority stakeholder and the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, was no longer willing to invest.
That means BNC’s staff of 230 — a vast majority of whom are people of color — are out of work with no severance.https://t.co/qgdY1uqXhf
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) March 25, 2022
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:
The Black News Channel will shut down today at 5 p.m.
The Los Angeles Times broke the news the day after an email was sent to employees that they would not be getting their payroll checks on Friday. Majority stakeholder and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan had invested about $50 million into BNC, but audience and revenues failed to meet the company’s hefty cost structure. He decided he couldn’t keep throwing more money at the operation, which has 230 employees, mostly people of color, the Times story said.
CEO and former CNN executive Princell Hair, who joined the operation last year, sent an email to staff mid-day Friday which noted that, “Unfortunately, due to challenging market conditions and global financial pressures, we have been unable to meet our financial goals, and the timeline afforded to us has run out. It’s with a broken heart that I am letting you all know that, effective immediately, BNC will cease live production and file for bankruptcy. We are saddened and disappointed by this reality and recognize the stress that this puts on you and your families.”