 Having been a prominent part of New York for nearly 100 years, the Amsterdam News has always published news from a black perspective.
Nayaba Arinze, formerly a journalist for the Daily Challenge, has been Editor-in-Chief of Amsterdam News since 2005. Arinze said that the atmosphere is very easy going and everyone is focused on his or her mission.
The Amsterdam News is not biased. They report any story regardless of the ethnicities of the individuals involved. ‘The objective is to publish any story from a Black person’s perspective in New York,” stated Arinze.
Sixty-five people work at the AmsterdamNews. There are two journalists on staff and many freelance journalists that send their articles to be published there. The most stories that any journalist is assigned per week are five. Breaking stories are due by Tuesday. Other stories such as international events are due by Friday.
The Amsterdam News always publishes an unbiased story. If a crime regarding police brutality occurs, they will interview the victim and someone that may represents the police such as the Police Commissioner.  When asked how does the publication impact the community? Arinze stated that it is well respected throughout the community and that many politicians ask to be interviewed.
The Amsterdam News does advocacy as well. Certain issues that might get overlooked regarding the black community, such as police brutality by major news publications will be given special attention. They have published articles regarding the Sean Bell case and the Amadou Diallo Case.
Every article that is published, a reporter might have not necessarily been there because they receive information from other sources, stated Arinze. The Amsterdam News doesn’t have much competition with other newspaper except in advertising dollars. We are responsible for more than 3 million dollars in advertisements, stated Penda Howell, Director of Advertisement.
 The Amsterdam News publishes a weekly newspaper with two main stories and four lead stories. “The Amsterdam News used to be a full size newspaper. We used to put out a newspaper twice a week before the civil rights movement and television” stated Vernon Small, a staff member of the Amsterdam News.
One thing that the Editor-in-Chief and many other staff members have in common is that they can’t capture the attention of youth. Arinze thinks they are using the wrong language and think they should use a vocabulary that young people are familiar with. The staff feels that they will eventually get their attention.
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