#BlackoutTuesday: NL Times joins top Black platforms to promote Black-owned businesses

As worldwide protests against social injustice against black communities segue into the #blackouttuesday economic boycott, one journalist in the Netherlands is dedicating the entire month of July to drawing attention to black entrepreneurship in the Netherlands. AFRO Magazine publisher and communications expert Marvin Hokstam is launching the "Which Black Dutch Companies to Support" series of newsletters to exclusively feature entrepreneurship in the Black Dutch community.

Working together with Black Ladies Talk (BLT) and Black Dutch Entrepreneurs (BDE), Hokstam's series is a spin-off of the Black-Owned Businesses directory created for AFRO Magazine. The Dutch-language features will also be translated into English through a partnership with NL Times. Sponsorship opportunities within the newsletters will be steeply discounted, with all four platforms agreeing that reaching the widest audience possible is crucial. The objective is to bring attention to these businesspeople, many of whom face the brunt of the Covid-19 economic crisis, but whose stories do not always get the attention they deserve, Hokstam says.

“We joined up with BLT and BDE to help Black entrepreneurs reach as many potential customers as possible. These are difficult times that are hitting Black communities particularly hard," Hokstam says. "Now that the crisis and the BLM protests have created the perfect storm that has led to Blackout Tuesday, we thought this was also the perfect time to create opportunities for Black businesses. A Black entrepreneur is a potential employer for jobseekers who are discriminated against because of their skin color; a Black entrepreneur is a possible internship for a student who is discriminated against because of their skin color, something which happen more often than people realize.”

A veteran who has had an extensive career in journalism in the Caribbean before relocating to the Netherlands, Hokstam previously worked with NL Times and his AFRO Magazine maintains a strong relationship with the powerhouse English-language Netherlands news site. “I’m excited that NL Times has agreed to come on board with this initiative. They have a reach that in my opinion is underestimated. We’re happy to help businesses take advantage of that.”

"NL Times has always strived to profile the diverse communities within the Netherlands, including those which are underrepresented or whose voices are often drowned out," says Zack Newmark, Managing Editor and Founder of NL Times. "Our partnership with AFRO Magazine continues that commitment. We are proud to be able to feature the inspiring entrepreneurs from these communities and to shine a spotlight on their businesses."

Businesses interested in sponsoring "Which Black Dutch Companies to Support" can contact AFRO Magazine directly. NL Times will invest any profits earned from the partnership into further developing news content featuring the ethnically diverse communities in the Netherlands.

"We have been getting questions from our readers about which Black-owned businesses to support during these times. We're excited to be able to connect more businesses and clients to each other," Newmark says.