Wisconsin’s oldest Black newspaper and two Black radio stations in the city are coming together being under a new community ownership structure formed with the aim of ensuring their permanent independence.

Madison-based Civic Media Inc. established the Milwaukee Black Media Trust, which includes the Milwaukee Courier and WGBK (101.7-FM, The Truth). Civic Media, which acquired the Courier late last year, is also awaiting FCC approval to finalize the purchase of WNOV (860-AM, The Voice), which will also become part of Milwaukee Black Media Trust.

Rather than retain ownership of these historically Black-owned media properties, Civic Media created a trust with a structure that it says will prevent any individual or corporation from selling, consolidating or redirecting the outlets away from the community they serve.  

“The whole point of this is to return value to the people who are doing the work, and not to a rich capitalist,” Civic Media CEO Sage Weil said in an interview with Milwaukee Magazine. “This model of employee ownership and a trust make a lot more sense because profits are going to flow back to the people who are actually living in the community, doing the work and running the company.”

Under the setup, employees of Milwaukee Black Media share in the company’s financial success through a profit-sharing program that vests over five years. The trust is governed by three trustees, all of whom have deep roots in Milwaukee’s Black community.  The trustees, in turn, appoint board members for Milwaukee Black Media LLC, which will own and operate the Milwaukee Courier and, eventually, The Voice, Wisconsin’s first Black-owned radio station. It will also operate and have an option to purchase The Truth.

Weil said he came up with the concept through a process of “research, brainstorming and chatting with AI agents.”

“I can’t say that I’ve seen what we’re doing being done before,” he said. 

The trust is led by three founding trustees: Milwaukee Ald. and longtime community leader Milele Coggs; Tiffany Wynn, a senior marketing leader at healthcare firm Ascension; and Courier editor Roemel Brown, who serves as the employee representative trustee.

“The trust ensures that these institutions remain community-controlled and Black-centered at a time in our nation’s history when the Black experience is too often diminished,” Coggs said in a statement.

The trust “honors the legacy of Milwaukee’s Black media while ensuring the voices of our community are not only preserved, but elevated for generations to come,” Wynn said in a statement.  “It marks a powerful, forward-looking win for our city, where ownership, storytelling and opportunity are rooted in the people who live and lead here.”

The trust is the sole owner of Milwaukee Black Media LLC, the operating company for the combined media properties and whose board members are Mark Wade, board president and Milwaukee business owner and community advocate; John Torres, former owner of El Sol Broadcasting and WJTI in Milwaukee; and Chris Moreau, south region president for Civic Media.

Robert “Biko” Baker, the holding company’s general manager, will lead operations across the Courier and The Truth, working with program director Darren Deboe, Brown and sales director Doug Kelley.

“Milwaukee’s Black community stands at an important crossroads, and the role of media in shaping our path forward has never been more critical,” Baker said.  

The Milwaukee Courier has anchored Milwaukee’s Black community for more than 60 years, and The Truth extends the ability to reach and engage audiences in new ways, Baker said. “What we are building is not simply a media company. It is a platform designed to inform, connect and uplift a community that deserves nothing less,” he said.

Milwaukee Black Media has also entered into a local marketing agreement with Milwaukee-based Good Karma Brands to program The Truth, with an option to purchase the station.  

Good Karma Brands launched The Truth in 2021.

“From the start, our focus has been on building a strong platform and positioning it for continued growth and impact,” Good Karma Brands CEO Craig Karmazin said in a statement.

Civic Media will continue to support Milwaukee Black Media’s operations through a services agreement, providing administrative, technology and sales support services, but with Milwaukee Black Media operating with full editorial and programming independence.  

“Craig and I are on the same page in that we believe that this is the best way to structure things, for the Courier, The Truth and for WNOV for them to be successful and to get the best buy-in from the listenership, from the community, and also from the business community that ultimately needs to support these properties in order for them to be sustainable and viable and to thrive,” Weil said.

“When Craig first reached out to me about The Truth, he said that he thought that the best way for the station to succeed was in combination with the Courier and WNOV as a unified entity that will have certain efficiencies but also be singularly focused on serving the community.”

Progressively focused Civic Media owns or operates about 30 radio stations and several digital and print properties across Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, with a heavy concentration in Wisconsin. Other recent acquisitions have included the August 2024 purchase of The Recombobulation Area, a Milwaukee-based online political news and opinion website founded by Dan Shafer.

“Civic Media’s usual model is that we buy properties and operate them as part of our larger entity,” Weil said. “In this case, we actually couldn’t acquire The Truth because we’re at our FCC ownership cap in Milwaukee, and that sort of forced the issue. But I also had been trying to figure out a way to have a different ownership structure that would somehow restore and preserve Black ownership. It was sort of nagging at me and made me feel uncomfortable. In the end, this is the best possible solution.”

Weil said his uneasiness stems from “parallel systemic problems in this country.”

“Everything is increasingly owned by the rich elite, and that rich elite is overwhelmingly white,” Weil said. “This means that Black Americans have a very difficult time accumulating wealth. There are many structural reasons as to why this has happened and been systematically applied. Civic Media isn’t here just to make money. We’re a mission-driven organization. This solution has allowed us to address those issues.”

The Milwaukee Courier, founded in 1964, previously operated as part of Courier Communications Corp., which purchased WNOV in 1972 with Jerrel Jones as majority stakeholder, making it the first Black-owned radio station in Wisconsin.

“This is a significant and positive move that will deeply impact our communities,” trustee and Courier editor Brown said in a statement. “Under this trust structure, the benefits will support our journalists and staff while ensuring Dr. Jones’s enduring legacy.”