Aggregating Local, Digital and Mainstream BIPOC Media On New Web3 Platform Delivers Value For Publishers Beyond News Dissemination
 
(Washington, D.C., 8.4.2022) —  This week, in response to calls for comments to proposed changes to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), over 140 Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) publishers united to urge federal regulators to include multicultural media as part of the funding.  The call-to-action led by the Multicultural Media and Correspondents Association (MMCA) unveiled a Web3 product that aggregates media for the purposes of news and information dissemination, BIPOCXChange Media Wire.  
 
Officially set for launch in October, the BIPOCXChange is a Web3 platform that connects a fragmented BIPOC media marketplace, and provides the infrastructure for the media wire.  A 21st Century version of the Associated Press, the XChange media wire is a resource for multicultural media owners, creators, and producers to receive and disseminate news and information to expand reach, relevance and revenue and, in the case of the CRA comment call-to-action, to mobilize and advocate for their collective survival.  Uniting publishers and organizations seeking to support them in a common effort to leverage the CRA reform process is an essential first step in addressing BIPOC media funding and advertising issues.
 
Publishers, editors and journalists of color at every level of media voice a similar complaint: being denied timely access to advertising, capital and newsmakers hinders their ability to do their best work.  BIPOC media for years have consistently called out everyone from Hollywood studio executives to the Capitol Hill press core for exclusionary tactics. The retort from corporations and policymakers who want to reach audiences of color with media messages is that they have no way to easily identify and reach BIPOC media. The XChange Media Wire solves that problem.  Built on a blockchain, the Web3 media wire ensures timely news dissemination.
 
The XChange’s effort to rally BIPOC media owners to sign a CRA petition became news, driving off-platform coverage, proving the power and value of a cooperative community of BIPOC media.  NCRC wrote an Op-Ed on the XChange’s call-to-action that was picked up by  the Minority Business News, Reynolds Journalism Institute and other websites.
 
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The original NCRC Op-Ed picked up by other outlets was inspired by MMCA’s call-to-action, part of its Equitable Media and Economies Initiative, which lives as a media metapage in the BIPOCXChange ecosystem.  The media metapage is the product of a highly coordinated effort to activate the XChange’s media wire and engage publishers, media owners and stakeholders around CRA reform. 
 
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“The BIPOCXChange Media Wire has the power to drive engagement outside the BIPOCXChange membership, media databases and core demographics to the broader mainstream audience,” says Darren Dickerson, Chief of Operations for the XChange. “It is a fully integrated news and content distribution portal.”
 
 
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BIPOC media play a critical role in creating a more equitable economy. They are connectors, convenors and sources of relevant, actionable and often life-saving information, as we saw during the pandemic. They are as essential to a community’s well-being as affordable and reliable housing, education, transportation and health care and, in many cases, the most trusted information provider and a conduit for community engagement. And yet the institutions we often turn to for funding critical community infrastructure — banks, community development finance institutions (CDFIs), socially responsible businesses, and government agencies — largely ignore Equitable Media as an essential building block. Despite this chronic disinvestment, BIPOC media continue to hold incredible trust, power and relevance across low-income and traditionally underserved communities.   
 
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“There is strength in numbers and the BIPOCXChange, our new media metaverse platform, provides the technology to link together a fragmented BIPOC media, create ecosystems, and showcase our power and impact within targeted demographics,” says David Morgan, MMCA President.  “We’ve always provided brands and agencies the education and access, this partnership and platform will aggregate the content and visuals that are necessary to create successful campaigns.”
 
The BIPOCXChange provides media owners, buyers, brands and creators a single-solution to connect with one another, identify needs, understand changing demographics, and how to reach core audiences.  Rallying the publishers to engage in CRA reform is in keeping with the spirit of the platform as more than an ecosystem or aggregator but as a virtual community that services the needs of its members.  
 
The XChange also recently teamed up with the Google News Initiative to host a webinar for BIPOC publishers and media owners applying for the GNI Global News Equity Fund.  A live stream event attended by nearly 100 BIPOCXChange members, the virtual conversation remains accessible via the media metapage created for the webinar.  This page allows media who could not attend in real-time to access the same information with fully integrated hyperlinks to relative pages and social media sites.
 
Between now and the October launch, the goal of the BIPOCXChange is to increase access for multicultural media and drive more coverage as a result of engagement through the XChange.