Prominent African-American publishing mogul Walter Smith, owner of The New York Beacon and The Philadelphia Observer, has died at the age of 83.
North Carolina native Smith, the CEO of the Smith Haj Group, passed away suddenly on Nov. 10 in Miami.
Smith’s entry into the newspaper business came in the early 1980s, when he turned a numerology tip sheet called Big Red into newspaper — buying full control in 1981.
Two years later, he began printing the weekly paper under the name of The New York Beacon, focusing coverage on the black community in the five boroughs. The newspaper boasted a circulation of 32,000.
He purchased the Philadelphia paper in 2006, stressing the important role that black newspapers play for their constituency.
“Black newspapers record black history,” he said. “That information is still in demand.”
In addition to his newspaper ownership, Smith served as a regional director for the National Newspaper Publishers Association — a trade organization representing more 200 African-American newspapers.
“The black press has lost a true giant,” said NNPA chair Dorothy R. Leavell. “Walter Smith made a difference in so many lives of black readers and black publishers.”
The Korean War veteran, raised as one of 10 children, returned to the post-war U.S. to become one of the founding employees of Automatic Data Processing (ADP).
He wound up making millions off his stock options, capping his rags-to-riches story and financing his foray into publishing.
A wake and funeral were set for Dec. 1 in Florida, where Smith maintained a home.
