By Viviane Faver
Philadelphia-based Scoop USA Media recently launched Scoop VIZION Newspaper, a monthly business publication focusing on Black business from an international perspective. Black- and woman-owned, the business-to-business publication will cover local, national, and international economic issues that the mainstream media ignores from the African Diaspora perspective.
ScoopVIZION is the result of three years of trying to build a successful newspaper business capped off within the year of 2020. The publication will regularly report various business-related issues and information including marketing, finance and investments, news from the African Diaspora, business resources, innovations and trends from a Black perspective.
In an exclusive interview with the New York Beacon, the owner/publisher of Scoop VIZION, Sherri Horsey Darden, says the importance of this project is to become a place where business owners can get verifiable information and answers to questions they cannot find online.
As a novice with degrees in Business Management and Human Resources, she walked into this business thinking it would be easy to start and run a business, but she was fooled. “My education helped but I still experienced a number of trial and error moments. As we all lived through the pandemic and we experienced the impact of the closures and the varying degrees of success/failure when comparing minority vs. small businesses, and the effect that the aid (what I consider a band-aide) had on the businesses, I decided that we could help. ScoopVIZION is that help.”
Minority companies need a place where they can have support and answers, and if answers are not available, there will be information and professionals who are sharing information they can trust to get in touch to get those answers, this is Ms. Horsey Darden’s proposal. “My goal is to guide by providing accurate, factual information and stories with which they can relate, from businesswomen with whom they may have similar experiences.”
ScoopVIZION is distributed in print and a full digital replica. It is available on their website with a subscription. The publications will also cover current news, and the general business areas that all entrepreneurs should work on, that is, marketing and e-commerce, advertising, business law (FMLA, FLSA, taxes), etc..
Ms. Horsey Darden expects to keep building and helping as many businesses as she possibly can. “As we have seen in this past year, many people are not aware of the practices and protocols and we want to become that place where businesses can go to get that information.”
ScoopVIZION’s premiere edition includes Part One of a three-part series on the evolution of Black business that begins in ancient Kemet and
culminates in 2021. Other features include news on digital currency in the Caribbean, the legal end of starting a business, music biz tips, labor law, technology, growing your business, and features on Black businesses on the rise in spite of the pandemic. The publication will regularly report on a variety of business-related issues and information including marketing, finance and investments, news from the African Diaspora, business resources, innovations and trends from a Black perspective.
“We feel it’s vitally important for people throughout the African Diaspora to connect on economic issues in order to improve the effectiveness and profitability of our ongoing enterprises, explained owner/publisher Sherri Horsey Darden. “It’s especially important in light of the current state of the national and world economies that we expand our view, share information and collaborate. I’m taking a leap of faith and going in an entirely different direction with ScoopVIZION. I believe in my heart and trust that ScoopVIZION
is needed and is part of our overall mission. We’re looking to establish serious partnerships and an international network of support and cooperation,” says Ms. Horsey Darden.
One of a growing number of African American female newspaper publishers, Darden is relatively new to the newspaper publishing business. In 2017, Scoop USA Newspaper’s founding publisher Richard “Sonny” Driver passed the torch and the newspaper to Darden, who began working with him in 1996 as a typist. Darden’s work with Scoop USA, founded in 1960, progressed to bookkeeper and all-around editorial assistant as Driver delegated more responsibilities to her. After Driver’s passing, Darden continued his legacy of
educating and informing the Black Tri-state community through the weekly community newspaper, one of the few remaining in the area. She has since rebranded Scoop USA into Scoop USA Media which includes the community newspaper, a digital platform, an app and ScoopVIZION business publication.
ScoopVIZION’s target audience includes entrepreneurs, business people and educators in the African Diaspora, government officials and those looking to connect with Black-owned businesses. It will be distributed the 15th of each month on a digital platform with limited hard copies through subscription.
Subscribe at https://scoopusamedia.com/ or call 215-309-3139.
