BET Digital Launches National Community Reporting Initiative to Expand Local Multimedia Journalism

 

The program marks the next phase of BET.com’s video-first evolution, empowering local journalists across the U.S., including New York, Los Angeles, Memphis, Atlanta, D.C., Houston, and Kentucky.

Following the launch of a reimagined, video-first BET.com, BET Digital today announced the launch of its Community Reporting Initiative, a national program designed to create new opportunities for multimedia journalists to report important and meaningful stories across the United States.

The initiative will recruit local journalists to produce original video and multimedia reporting that highlights the people, issues, and cultural movements impacting their communities. Through on-the-ground coverage, the program aims to amplify voices, perspectives, and stories increasingly missing from traditional national media coverage.

The BET Community Reporting Initiative builds on BET’s newly reimagined approach to BET.com and BET News. Moving beyond the traditional standalone-publisher model, BET.com now serves as a video-first experience that connects audiences to BET content wherever it lives, including YouTube, social platforms, Paramount+ and BET. The initiative also an extension of the BET Creator Studio, BET's digital-first platform that gives creators the infrastructure and distribution power of the BET brand, now applied to journalism. Interested journalists can apply at www.betcreatorstudio.com.

The new model reflects BET's ongoing commitment to championing authentic storytelling. By investing in journalists embedded within the communities they serve, BET is creating pathways for more representative storytelling that reflects the full breadth of Black communities across America while helping shape a more community-driven future for journalism. Through BET's expansive digital platforms, these stories will elevate local voices, lived experiences, and perspectives that are too often overlooked, connecting millions of people to the communities, conversations, and changemakers shaping culture every day.

Yesha Callahan, Head of Editorial for BET Digital, developed the program with Jason Samuels, an NYU professor and broadcast news veteran who serves as a consultant for BET News. Together, they will lead the Community Reporting Initiative, guiding editorial standards and mentoring participating journalists as the program expands.

“The legacy newsroom model is dissolving. Our goal is to empower local multimedia journalists to find, report, and share the stories that matter most to them. In an era of social media noise, we believe there is a real need for authentic, original news stories – produced by and for our community,” said Jason Samuels.

Callahan, an award-winning journalist and award-winning documentarian, will manage and direct the initiative for BET Digital. She has built a career at the intersection of culture, storytelling, and community-focused reporting.

“Local journalists bring a depth of understanding that can’t be replicated from afar,” said Yesha Callahan. “This initiative is about investing in reporters who live in the communities they cover and giving them a national platform to tell the stories that matter most. At a time when newsrooms are being gutted, and Black journalists are feeling the brunt of layoffs, it’s not enough to talk about representation; we have to fund it.”

Content produced through the Community Reporting Initiative will be distributed across BET Digital's editorial and social platforms, reaching more than 200 million followers and expanding the reach of local journalism nationwide.

Below are a few of the participating journalists:

Fallon Brannon is an award-winning independent journalist and writer based in Los Angeles, CA. Her work has been featured in The Guardian US, AfroLA, ESSENCE Girls United, and Teen Vogue, among other publications.

Brandi Hunter is a journalist, producer and Ph.D. student in journalism and strategic media. She has reported and produced for television news and digital platforms, with bylines in Blavity, The Daily Beast and Faithfully Magazine.

Larry Spruill Jr. is an Emmy Award-winning and two-time Edward R. Murrow-winning journalist. He's a graduate of Valdosta State University, a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Bre Teamer is a Detroit-based media personality, host and storyteller who turns culture, community, and conversation into compelling stories. After years as a broadcast streaming and television journalist, Bre is ready to tell stories in a new way, bringing a sharp cultural lens and distinctly Detroit perspective to the people, ideas and movements shaping what’s next.

Sydney Bellamy is an Atlanta-based multimedia journalist passionate about sports, HBCUs, and leaving any community that she has the opportunity to encounter better. A graduate of Florida A&M University with a degree in broadcast journalism, Bellamy is committed to shining a light on stories that otherwise would not receive it.

Jonathan Giles is an Atlanta-based journalist. A former late-night TV writer, he founded Off Course, a sports-powered travel and culture platform. His work appears across multiple platforms, including ABC, NBC, EBONY and Sainted Magazine.

Sabinna Pierre is an Oregon journalist and first-generation Haitian American storyteller with local and national media experience, including TMZ, who is passionate about news, culture and the stories shaping the world around us. Outside of journalism, she enjoys community events, new music and archived runway shows, always keeping one eye on the culture and the other on the next good story.

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