Newspaper for Black Readers Finds Success : Journalism: Peggy Onakomaiya’s Tri-County Sentry has quickly grown in subscriptions and advertising.

A fellow publisher warned Peggy Onakomaiya that if she followed through on her plan to open a newspaper for African-American readers in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, she could forget about a social life.

Now, eight months after the Tri-County Sentry published its first edition from a cramped office in Port Hueneme, Onakomaiya is learning that the warning was on target.

Since November, the Oxnard woman has worked 80 hours a week, lost a boyfriend, and sees her daughter less than she would like as she struggles to make her one-woman operation a success.

But she wouldn’t give it up for anything, Onakomaiya said.

“This is my life,” she said. “This is everything. It’s OK, because I believe in what I’m doing.”

Her goal, Onakomaiya said, is to provide a “good news” newspaper for the black community in the tri-county area. And where prior efforts to establish a black-owned newspaper in Ventura County failed after a few months, Onakomaiya has so far succeeded.

She gave copies of the first edition, published Nov. 21, away in churches and mini-marts; today her subscribers number 4,097, she said. The tabloid, published every two weeks, has grown from eight to 12 pages during that time. A subscription costs $10 a year, and a single issue sells for 25 cents.

Most significantly, the Sentry now pays for itself through advertising and subscriptions, Onakomaiya said.

The publication has been enthusiastically received in Ventura County’s black community, said W. J. Cannon, a pastor at Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church in Oxnard.

“Seems like most people who I talk with are very interested and always want to get it,” Cannon said. “I haven’t heard any critics.”

Onakomaiya, 36, who holds a degree in business administration from Arizona State University, owned and operated car sales lots in Phoenix before moving to Oxnard 18 months ago. Although her journalism experience was limited to a few college courses, Onakomaiya was determined to jump into publishing.

“I thought the counties needed an African-American newspaper,” Onakomaiya said, adding that a lack of publications devoted to the black community made it difficult for members to keep abreast of its activities.

About 30,000 blacks live in the tri-county area, half of them in Ventura County, according to U.S. census figures.

She decided right off that her paper would not include stories about crime.

“I will never put anything about a shooting, a drug bust or an arrest in my paper,” Onakomaiya said. “People can pick up any newspaper and see that. I want to print positive things to try and bring up the level of awareness of the African-American community.”

The most recent issue includes a story on the appointment of Harold Hurtt as Oxnard’s first black police chief, profiles of business owners and pastors, and articles on achievements by African-American students. It also includes a calendar of upcoming ethnic-awareness events.

Even with her friend’s advice, Onakomaiya was not prepared for how difficult it would be to establish a publication in an area that already had several mainstream newspapers competing for advertising dollars. She got help in securing advertisers from John Hatcher, president of the Ventura County chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

She used her own money to start the business, but declined to say how much start-up costs were. She kept costs low, Onakomaiya said, by renting a tiny office in a run-down section of Port Hueneme and by using volunteers to help write stories.

Besides taking care of business details, Onakomaiya interviews subjects, takes pictures, writes stories and designs the papers on a MacIntosh computer at home. Volunteers contribute stories occasionally, but Onakomaiya is the only paid staff member.

The intensity of the job became so overwhelming that she almost gave up a few months ago, Onakomaiya said. Her boyfriend stopped seeing her because she was so busy. Her 8-year-old daughter, She, complained that she rarely saw her mother. And Onakomaiya was burning out from the effort.

But with a few adjustments to her schedule, the Sentry has survived and even flourished. Onakomaiya said she plans to add four pages to the tabloid next month to accommodate an increase in advertising.

“If I put my mind to do something, then I’m going to do it,” she said.

About 85% of the subscribers are Ventura County residents, although Onakomaiya plans to make a bigger push into Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties after she moves into bigger offices in Oxnard and hires a part-time staff writer next month.

Now that she has achieved a measure of success, Onakomaiya said her goal of eventually doubling the size of the paper doesn’t seem so far away. She has also learned something about journalism, Onakomaiya said.

“The newspaper business is a tough business to be in,” she said. “It takes everything out of you.”