Seeing Slate's continued success and the purchasing power of blacks, the Washington Post Co. has launched TheRoot.com, a news and entertainment site for people of color. Henry Louis Gates Jr., an African-American Studies professor at Harvard, comes on board as editor-in-chief, with folks like Malcolm Gladwell signing on to contribute.
Gates is also involved on the business end, with TheRoot teaming up with his own AfricanDNA.com, which is among a growing number of companies promising to link the black diaspora to its African roots through genetic maps. Readers of TheRoot are often directed to Gates' website.
Gates – and apparently WaPo – sees no conflict of interest, even though their new website (named TheRoot, after all) makes an explicit effort to focus especially on genealogy. Which is a convenient stance to take. (And given our own interest in black web publishing, perhaps our skepticism is also convenient?)
Editorial Director
I would agree that the website has a profit motive behind it. Even before reading this blog, it was my first impression when visiting the site. But in order to make that conclusion, you have to be an informed individual. What I mean by that is 1: You would have to know that Skip Gates is a principal of the DNA genealogy service that is being prominently recommended on "The Root." 2: That using DNA to trace genealogy is so inaccurate, that the results are symbolic at best. Going back just four generations, a person would have sixteen great-great grandparents, but the DNA test only reveals one. 3: The website opens just a week before the debut of the 2nd part of the documentary "African American Lives," which covers the DNA genealogy research of a few prominent African Americans. As a matter of fact, clips of the new show can be seen on "The Root." (it would be interesting to see which DNA company is recommended in the documentary.)
Most people will not connect these dots. I guess they are banking on the emotional aspect of African Americans wanting to know where they come from.
A profit motive? In America? I'm speechless!
this is america and nothing is for FREE!!
Methinks that it's a tenet of web sustainability and longevity that your website gots to make some money. if the financial connection between Gates and WaPo creates or supports interesting, informative content AND they make money from it, why the beef?