Capital B is a national and local media outlet that caters to Black Americans. ¹ As of February 2024, Capital B has a national news desk as well as local news desks in Atlanta, Georgia, and Gary, Indiana.

The name “Capital B” refers to the custom of capitalizing the “B” when media outlets write about Black Americans. ² The outlet’s founding was inspired by perceived racism in the United States indicated by the death of George Floyd, the election of President Donald Trump, and other recent events.

Founding

Capital B was founded on January 31, 2022, by Lauren Williams and Akoto Ofori-Atta with a national news desk and a local news desk dedicated to Atlanta, Georgia. Capital B later established another news desk in Gary, Indiana. The organization plans to establish more local newsrooms when it has sufficient funding. Potential sites include Baltimore, Detroit, New York City, New Orleans, Houston, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C. ³

Williams and Ofori-Atta met while working at The Root, a left-wing race-focused media outlet, in the early 2010s. Two years after the re-election of President Barack Obama, Democrats lost control of the U.S. Senate due to the rise of the Tea Party. Williams and Ofori-Atta believed that “racism was the primary driver of [the] Obama opposition” and indicated that progress toward racial harmony in the United States was partially illusory. This notion was later reinforced by the election of  President Donald Trump in 2016. ⁴

Capital B was born out of concerns of how the media was covering Black Americans during the Trump presidency, the 2020 George Floyd protests, and the COVID-19 pandemic, and later by “a wave of anti-protest, voter suppression, and anti-‘critical race theory’ school bills across the country.” Williams called these “a series of wake-up calls that Black people just always get, that the progress isn’t quite the progress that it seemed.” Ofori-Atta has said that while there is plenty of mainstream news coverage of Black issues, the news is usually produced for white audiences; Capital B intends to fill the niche of producing news about Black Americans for a Black audience. ^{5 6}

Williams has stated that Capital B is intended to push the mainstream media to reform its coverage, but Williams and Ofori-Atta do not see the outlet as an alternative to the mainstream media (ex. like Substack to traditional newspapers). ⁷

Capital B had 16 employees at its launch. ⁸

Funding

Capital B raised $9.4 million for its launch, including $95,000 from small donors. Other donors included the Ford Foundation, American Journalism Project, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and Yellow Chair Foundation. ^{9 10}

Capital B does not maintain a paywall for its core content. It solicits donations through a membership service that includes extra content with fees of $120 to over $300 per year. ¹¹

According to co-founder Lauren Williams, charitable donations from foundations and individuals will likely be Capital B’s primary revenue source. ¹² Capital B is purposefully structured to not rely on funding from advertisers. ¹³

In 2023, the Henry Luce Foundation gave Capital B a $250,000 grant. ¹⁴

Also in 2023, the Park Foundation gave Capital B a $100,000 grant. ¹⁵

In 2022, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave Capital B a $400,000 grant over two years. ¹⁶

Also in 2022, the Lumina Foundation gave Capital B a $500,000 grant. ¹⁷

Leadership

Lauren Williams is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Capital B. From 2014 to 2021, Williams worked at Vox, working her way up from managing editor to editor-in-chief and senior vice president. Earlier, Williams worked for Mother Jones the Slate Group’s Root.com. ¹⁸

Akoto Ofori-Atta is the co-founder and chief audience officer of Capital B. From 2015 to 2020, Ofori-Atta was a senior editor and then managing editor at The Trace, a media outlet devoted to covering gun crimes in the United States. Earlier, Ofori-Atta also worked at the Slate Group’s Root.com, ¹⁹ where she met Williams. ²⁰

Gillian White was the senior vice president of programming and revenue at Capital B and has been the chief revenue officer since January 2023. From 2014 to 2021, White worked for The Atlantic, finishing as managing editor. ²¹

Politics

Capital B promotes political access, such as informing Americans on how to register to vote or file for tax credits. ²²

In an interview, co-founder Lauren Williams acknowledged that Black Americans tend to vote Democratic but that many Black Americans are lowercase-c conservative, and claimed that Capital B’s news coverage would reflect this range of views. ²³

1. Patel, Nilay. “News with a B: CEO Lauren Williams on why we need news for and by Black people.” The Verge. February 8, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.theverge.com/22922029/capital-b-ceo-lauren-williams-black-news-founder-startup-media-local
2. Summers, Juana. “Capital B is a new media outlet focused on a Black audience.” National Public Radio. February 6, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.npr.org/2022/02/06/1078634155/capital-b-is-a-new-media-outlet-focused-on-a-black-audience.
3. Patel, Nilay. “News with a B: CEO Lauren Williams on why we need news for and by Black people.” The Verge. February 8, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.theverge.com/22922029/capital-b-ceo-lauren-williams-black-news-founder-startup-media-local.
4. Williams, Lauren; Ofori-Atta. “Why It’s the Right Time for a Capital B.” Capital B. January 31, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://capitalbnews.org/welcome-introduction-cofounders/.
5. Patel, Nilay. “News with a B: CEO Lauren Williams on why we need news for and by Black people.” The Verge. February 8, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.theverge.com/22922029/capital-b-ceo-lauren-williams-black-news-founder-startup-media-local.
6. Williams, Lauren; Ofori-Atta. “Why It’s the Right Time for a Capital B.” Capital B. January 31, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://capitalbnews.org/welcome-introduction-cofounders/.
7. Patel, Nilay. “News with a B: CEO Lauren Williams on why we need news for and by Black people.” The Verge. February 8, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.theverge.com/22922029/capital-b-ceo-lauren-williams-black-news-founder-startup-media-local.
8. Patel, Nilay. “News with a B: CEO Lauren Williams on why we need news for and by Black people.” The Verge. February 8, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.theverge.com/22922029/capital-b-ceo-lauren-williams-black-news-founder-startup-media-local.
9. Patel, Nilay. “News with a B: CEO Lauren Williams on why we need news for and by Black people.” The Verge. February 8, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.theverge.com/22922029/capital-b-ceo-lauren-williams-black-news-founder-startup-media-local.
10. Scire, Sarah. “Capital B, written for and by Black people, launches as a nonprofit newsroom.” Nieman Lab. February 1, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/02/capital-b-written-for-and-by-black-people-launches-as-a-nonprofit-newsroom/.
11. “Support Capital B’s Black Local News Fund today.” Capital B. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://capitalbnews.fundjournalism.org/donate/?campaign=7018Y000001a3D4QAI&_gl=1*15qr8tm*_ga*MzUwOTY4My4xNzA3MzY3ODY3*_ga_FB4L9CQ4ZK*MTcwNzQwODQ4MS4yLjEuMTcwNzQwODU2NC4wLjAuMA.
12. Patel, Nilay. “News with a B: CEO Lauren Williams on why we need news for and by Black people.” The Verge. February 8, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.theverge.com/22922029/capital-b-ceo-lauren-williams-black-news-founder-startup-media-local.
13. Summers, Juana. “Capital B is a new media outlet focused on a Black audience.” National Public Radio. February 6, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.npr.org/2022/02/06/1078634155/capital-b-is-a-new-media-outlet-focused-on-a-black-audience.
14. “Capital B News, Inc..” Henry Luce Foundation. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.hluce.org/grants/grants/capital-b-reimagining-news-for-black-americans/.
15. “Grants Awarded.” Park Foundation. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.parkfoundation.org/grantees/capital-b-news-inc/.
16. “Capital B News, Inc..” MacArthur Foundation. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.macfound.org/grantee/capital-b-news-inc-10115645/.
17. “Capital B News, Inc.” Lumina Foundation. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.luminafoundation.org/grant/2209-1115560/.
18. “Lauren Williams.” LinkedIn. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenmeredithwilliams/.
19. “Akoto Ofori-Atta.” LinkedIn. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/akotoo/.
20. Williams, Lauren; Ofori-Atta. “Why It’s the Right Time for a Capital B.” Capital B. January 31, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://capitalbnews.org/welcome-introduction-cofounders/.
21. “Gillian White.” LinkedIn. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillian-white-9990648/.
22. Patel, Nilay. “News with a B: CEO Lauren Williams on why we need news for and by Black people.” The Verge. February 8, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.theverge.com/22922029/capital-b-ceo-lauren-williams-black-news-founder-startup-media-local.
23. Patel, Nilay. “News with a B: CEO Lauren Williams on why we need news for and by Black people.” The Verge. February 8, 2022. Accessed February 8, 2024. https://www.theverge.com/22922029/capital-b-ceo-lauren-williams-black-news-founder-startup-media-local.