Community Link: Indianapolis Recorder

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — On this week’s Community Link, we’re discussing the diversity and inclusion of one of the oldest African-American newspapers in the country.

Lisa Shoemake, the newspaper’s sales and marketing manager, dropped by our studios to tell us more.

Tell us just how long the Indianapolis Recorder has been in circulation and what its mission has been

The Indianapolis Recorder newspaper is about 123 years old, we’re the 4th oldest surviving newspaper in our country. We have the ability to keep African-Americans in touch of what’s going on in the community. We are the voice in that community so we’re very proud about that. As it relates to the Indiana Minority and Diversity Magazine, actually that is the largest minority publication int he state of Indiana. so not only do we focus on Indianapolis, we focus on the state of Indiana. We cover all minorities. 

Why is it important to have publications that celebrate diversity and inclusion? 

Absolutely I think with the way things are today, in today’s world everything is so divided there’s a division. so we as a magazine we offer the inclusion, we want to include everyone in it. so that makes us a little different. 

What are some of the community programs that are important to the Recorder and how do you get the community engaged? 

Right now the Indianapolis Recorder has partner with WFYI on chalk beat. We are actually creating a forum for the IPS board for candidates. and then we are giving the opportunity to give their opinion and ask questions to those candidates.  

Print media has struggled. How has the Recorder and IMBM remained and sustained? 

We wanna keep up with technology right now, so we’ve gone digital. we’ve set out different platforms, we have about 12,000 friends on Facebook, We have Instagram and Twitter. and our website. We’ve realized we’ve got to go digital, and that’s what we’ve done.