Houston Defender Network

Newspaper publisher in Houston, TX

Address

12401 S Post Oak Rd, Houston, TX, 77045

Phone

(713) 663-6996

Website

defendernetwork.com

About Houston Defender Network

A Black news and information outlet serving the Greater Houston area across web, print e-editions, social media and video. Coverage spans local and state news, education, politics, business, health, arts and books, food, style, and high school, college and professional sports, along with profile series on Black women, community members and people under 40. The organization also produces events including the State of Black Women, Black Women's Kitchen Table Talk, a Juneteenth Faith Leaders' Breakfast and the HBCU Presidents Classic, and sells advertising with a published rate card and circulation audit. Papers are distributed through grocery chains such as H-E-B, Randall's, Kroger and Fiesta as well as Black restaurants, bookstores, churches and schools.

Clifton F. Richardson Sr., who had earlier founded the Houston Informer and edited the Houston Observer, started the Houston Defender in 1930 during the Great Depression, using it to report on racism and disenfranchisement despite threats and an advertiser boycott. After his death in 1939 his son C.F. Richardson Jr. took over, broadening coverage into sports and entertainment and later co-founding SEPIA magazine. Richardson Jr. sold the paper in 1981 to Sonceria "Sonny" Messiah Jiles, who had learned layout, distribution and circulation from him and financed the purchase by paying cash plus assuming his debt. Under her leadership the Defender has received two A. Philip Randolph Messenger Awards, NNPA Merit Awards, and recognition from Editor & Publisher as Best Black Newspaper Website in America.

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