BNC The Black News Channel, But Not Really a "Black news channel" Shutting Down This Week
Shad Khan, the Black News Channel’s chief investor decided not to pay employees last week which effectively decided the fate of the two-year old cable news outlet. Khan, a billionaire, is the owner of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars franchise. Marc Lamont Hill, host of Black News Tonight was not too happy with Khan's decision to leave many reporters, camera operators, technicians, behind the scenes producers and news assistants out of a job with no warning.
The real exclusive is that he’s refusing to give people their paychecks today. Hundreds of employees, many of whom already took significant pay cuts, are now being denied money they’ve already worked for. Khan, a BILLIONAIRE, simply says he doesn’t want to pay it. https://t.co/fhqbbKb5mN
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) March 25, 2022
BNC employees have health coverage for the next five days. And no severance. https://t.co/OmAdoiTuzj
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) March 26, 2022
According to the Los Angeles Times, Shad Khan declared the company's bankruptcy, leaving the BNC staff of about 230 jobless and without pay. The channel will air repeats for the remainder of March.
Black News Channel was conceived by a group headed up by former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma and White media executive Bob Brillante. The channel launched after Khan made a $50-million investment in 2019, making him the majority shareholder.
On Friday, Princell Hair, president and CEO of Tallahassee, Florida based Black News Channel, sent a note to employees informing them the channel was ceasing operations, had aired its last show and will file for bankruptcy.
From: Princell Hair
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2022 2:55 PM
To: BNC Staff
Subject: Network Update
Dear BNC Colleagues,
A little more than two years ago, the lights on BNC’s cameras flipped on for the first time. Despite the challenges of a global pandemic, we launched a groundbreaking mission to inject positive change into a news landscape that, for far too long, had underserved and overlooked Black and Brown people.
During the past few months, we have endured very painful workforce reductions at all levels of the network as we worked to achieve our financial goal of a break-even business. This has forced all of you to do more with less, and your contributions have been remarkable.
Unfortunately, due to challenging market conditions and global financial pressures, we have been unable to meet our financial goals, and the timeline afforded to us has run out.
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) March 26, 2022
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