By Massarah Mikati

Going into the 2024 presidential election, Capital B knew they had a monstrous task ahead of them to fulfill their mission of serving Black audiences during a critical election year. Black voters hold a significant amount of political power in the U.S., but the complexity and diversity within their communities are often flattened by mainstream media, and the ways politics will directly impact Black communities are not always a focus. That’s where Capital B stepped in. Through engagement initiatives such as their Black Political Power Tour, a video series debunking misinformation and newsletter call-outs, Capital B facilitated impactful discussions within and for Black communities, equipping their readers with the information they needed for collective action and civic empowerment.

Approach

1. Black Political Power Tour

As the 2024 presidential election was approaching, the staff at Capital B were thinking a lot about swing states and Black people. While the swing states were receiving a lot of attention for the impact they would have on the election, it was Black communities concentrated in those states that would have significant sway and power in determining the future of the country. Despite that, “Black political power is often ignored or treated as a pawn in a political game, instead of just really delving in and elevating and amplifying what drives people to take action,” said Capital B co-founder and chief audience officer Akoto Ofori-Atta.

That, and what Black people would need in an election year, was top of mind for Capital B staffers when they came up with the idea to embark on a Black Political Power Tour. With the mission of centering Black people and their diverse perspectives, Capital B decided to be a convener for those conversations. People, the newsroom quickly found, were hungry for local conversations about how national politics would impact them.

How they did it

• City selection: Capital B focused on cities with significant Black populations in key swing states, including Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Phoenix, Milwaukee and Oakland.
• Local partnerships: The newsroom collaborated with local media outlets, such as Resolve Philly or Outlier Media, and community organizations in each city to provide local expertise and drive attendance. When choosing who to partner with, Capital B made sure missions and values were aligned, and that the partnership would be mutually beneficial.
• Panel discussions: Each stop featured panels from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives, including local activists, politicians and experts. With help from the local partners, Capital B identified the most pressing issues in each city for the panel discussions such as public safety, housing and climate change.
• Audience engagement: Each event featured a Q&A session, as well as mixers for participants, fostering direct interaction between attendees and panelists. Capital B also provided food and drinks for attendees (“Do not leave food and drink out of the subject line!” Ofori-Atta said). Community organizations also tabled at the events, covering everything from voter registration to understanding civic duty to youth empowerment.
• Logistics: As soon as the newsroom articulated their why, they began pitching the program to funders to help financially support the event. Capital B’s events producer worked with the revenue officer to handle the majority of the logistics for the event planning. Importantly, the newsroom also decided to hire an outside event company to help with managing tasks — “even with the help, (the events producer’s) job was enormous,” Ofori-Atta added.  
• Promotion and outreach: Capital B leveraged geotargeted email campaigns, Eventbrite listings and social media to attract attendees. They also relied on their partners to drive audience, making sure the events were getting plugged in their newsletters and shared with community contacts.

2. Newsletter call-outs

After President Joe Biden delivered his final State of the Union address, Capital B launched a new politics newsletter called “Everything’s Political.” They knew from audience feedback that there was reader interest in hearing Capital B’s take on political issues with a regular cadence, but they also knew they didn’t have the capacity to produce regular articles on multiple issues. The newsletter became an opportunity for the newsroom to plant their flag on stories they might not otherwise have the bandwidth to create full, in-depth articles on, including four to five pieces in each newsletter.

Capital B also used the newsletter as an opportunity to identify their readers’ information needs. Newsletter Editor Rob Smith occasionally included prompts or call-outs in different editions, and his most popular call-out was ahead of former Vice President Kamala Harris’ first major sit-down interview, asking readers what questions they would ask Harris if they had the chance. 

3. Video series

One of the viral remarks made during the 2024 presidential debates was President Donald Trump’s baseless claim that migrants were “taking Black jobs.” In response, Capital B’s social video producer Dev Allen created a reaction video addressing and fact-checking the remark — and it quickly went viral.

“It was really an important entrée to what we were hoping to do for the rest of the election season, which is really help people understand what was actually happening by untangling misinformation, but also giving people tools and tips for how to untangle it themselves,” said Ofori-Atta.

As a result of the viral video, the newsroom was able to secure funding to create more such content throughout the rest of election season. But they quickly realized a partnership would help amplify the impact of their work, so they reached out to PolitiFact. Through the collaboration, PolitiFact helped identify what claims politicians were making relevant to Black audiences and debunked those claims in articles. Capital B then created videos based off the articles. The videos were shared across Capital B’s social platforms, and were even cross-promoted by high-profile figures such as Ava DuVernay. Capital B plans to continue producing this content throughout the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency.

Results

1. Black Political Power Tour

At the end of each event in the Black Political Power Tour, the team at Capital B received the same response from attendees: “When are you doing this again?” People were eager to talk about more topics more in-depth, and they were hungry to have those conversations in community. Now, Capital B is considering continuing the events as an annual series to keep making space for these conversations in Black communities.

While turnout varied in each city, some events, such as Oakland, had as many as 150 RSVPs. Ofori-Atta noticed significant turnout in cities with smaller Black populations, too, such as Phoenix. “The Black population there is very small, and they were just craving for a space like this to just talk to other Black people and talk about Black issues,” she said.

Capital B also made sure to send out emails after each event to non-subscribers encouraging them to sign up for the newsletter, as well as including a newsletter subscription opt-in when registering for the events, which brought in new subscribers.

At the end of the tour, the newsroom published a Swing State Voter Package. With the help of local freelancers, this six-part series explored what was top of mind for Black voters in each of the cities visited during the tour.

2. Newsletter call-outs

Typically, Capital B received a handful of responses to their newsletter call-outs (although Smith added that “all you need is one good response.”) But their call-out on questions to ask Harris garnered about two dozen responses.

“I think that was our most successful call-out to-date in terms of doing more than just clicking a button,” Smith said. “That was really helpful to both demonstrate that there is a willingness amongst our audience to do this, and that it can have value for the newsroom as well.”

After going through the responses, Capital B closed the feedback loop by publishing an article with the top 10 questions readers had. The responses provided an important blueprint for the newsroom to root their reporting in as they continued covering the election, and as they report on the new administration. Now, the team is exploring other platforms to experiment with call-outs.

3. Video series

With the first video debunking claims made during a presidential debate going viral, Capital B was able to attract more funding to support continuing to create such content. Their partnership with PolitiFact and social media presence allowed their work to have wider reach.

Lessons learned

1. Black Political Power Tour

• Partners are everything. Finding the right partner and being on the same page about what you want to accomplish is critical for success. This is particularly true if you’re a national organization, as local partners will be key for driving engagement on the ground.

• Root conversation in journalistic inquiries. What are you trying to discover? What are you trying to reveal and learn? Don’t make your events just a Q&A with panelists, but rather an interrogation of pressing issues.

• Offer free food and drinks.

• Approach promotion with a local mindset. Keep tabs on where local communities find events, and target your outreach accordingly.

2. Newsletter call-outs

• Be specific. When comparing different call-outs, Smith noticed the ones that yielded the most responses asked very specific questions.

• Find a news hook. More popular call-outs also had newsworthy time hooks, prompting more response.

• Be transparent about how responses will impact your journalism. Be sure to communicate that people’s responses may be used not only in newsletter content, but also news stories.

3. Video Series

• Engagement can boost revenue. The viral debunking video directly contributed to a successful membership fundraising campaign, demonstrating the financial return engagement can bring newsrooms.