Building on Legacy

Chapter One: The Founding — Don G. Black (1993–2020)

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In 1993, Don G. Black noticed a void. Dayton's African American community was full of families, churches, businesses, organizations and everyday people doing work worth knowing about. Too much of that life never made it into the news. When Black neighborhoods did show up in the broader media, it was often because something had gone wrong.

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Don believed there was a fuller story to tell, the one about where people lived, worked, worshiped, built businesses and raised families. As a lifelong Dayton resident and entrepreneur, he decided to do something about it.

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On November 23, 1993, the first issue of the Dayton Weekly News rolled off the presses. Its mission was simple: to provide Dayton with a better view of itself.

 

Week after week, the paper covered politics, health, education, business, religion, sports, entertainment and neighborhood news, giving people and organizations a platform they didn't always have elsewhere. Don kept that mission going for more than 26 years, and when Don G. Black passed on April 6, 2020, he left behind a community institution and a responsibility for someone else to carry it forward.

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Chapter Two: The Succession — Donerik G. Black (2020–2026)

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After his father's death, Donerik G. Black took on the duty of carrying the Dayton Weekly News forward, at a difficult moment for the industry. Readers were moving online. Advertising models were shifting under community papers everywhere. Independent publications were feeling the financial and operational strain.

 

Donerik had to navigate all of the changes while holding onto the identity the paper had built over nearly three decades. He kept the community at the center of it, continuing his father's work of giving local voices a platform and keeping the people and issues of Dayton's African American community visible. His stewardship became the bridge between the paper's founding generation and what came next.

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By 2026, there were two questions:

1. How do we preserve what has been built?

2. How do we build on it?

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Chapter Three: The Acquisition — RoShawn Winburn (2026–Present)

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In 2026, RoShawn Winburn acquired the Dayton Weekly News, opening its third chapter. The ownership changed, but the responsibility didn't. Don G. Black's mission, to provide Dayton with a better view of itself, still sits at the foundation of everything the DWN does. Yet, carrying that mission forward in today's media environment means the organization has to grow.

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The Dayton Weekly News is expanding from a publication that reports to the community into a media organization built with it, bringing together journalists, contributors, subject-matter experts, businesses, institutions and residents to share useful information, elevate local voices and connect people with opportunity. Print stays part of that story, alongside a growing digital presence, newsletters, multimedia, events and new platforms for local voices. None of this replaces what Don G. Black built. It builds on it. This chapter carries a renewed purpose:

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"To be a catalyst for making our own backyards

better, more cooperative, and more connected."

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The tools will change. The platforms will change. New voices will join in. But what's carried across all three chapters stays the same. Our community deserves to see itself fully, its challenges and its accomplishments, its businesses and institutions, its culture and history, its leaders and its everyday people, its opportunities and its possibilities. That was the work Don G. Black started in 1993. Donerik G. Black carried it forward.

 

The Dayton Weekly News is Dayton's longest running African American newspaper. We invite you to join us in writing the next chapter, as the legacy continues.

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Stay informed. Stay engaged. Build together.