Issues and Ideals that launched the online journal and the Millennium

Thomas L Blair
Editor and Publisher, Editions Blair, Digital reprint
Vol 1, No 1 First issue November 1997 copyright

The generations embrace: Lord David Pitt and Dianne Abbott, one of the first four Black MPs elected in 1987/Photo Courtesy of The Guardian, London, England ©1987

Notable comments on the Chronicle’s Core Mission

Readers value the journal’s practical and motivational concerns. It illustrates the importance of memories, reliable information, critical thought, and action-ideas

Wedded to the Web. Communication across the Black Diaspora is crucial to The Chronicle’s vision, and makes the Web the perfect vehicle for the magazine.

With upwards of 800 hits since launch, The Chronicle has yet to make it into the mainstream of electronic media, but Blair’s vision is not to compete with the mainstream. “If we are managing to reach the right people, and by the e-mails I am receiving I know we are, then I am happy,” he told Cassie Biggs, 10/3/98 for the Teletext web site

 Social scientists agree —SOSIG – World – Further Education Teaching Materials
http://www.sosig.ac.uk/roads/subject-listing/World/furteach.html
Editor: Institute of Education.

Online journalists at the New York Times on the Web nominate THE CHRONICLE: www.chronicleworld.org as “A biting, well-written zine about Black life in Britain” and a useful reference in the Arts, Music and Popular Culture, Technology and Knowledge Networks.

Editors at the British TV Channel 4 – Black and Asian History Map call the www.chronicleworld.org “a comprehensive site full of information on the Black British presence plus news, current affairs and a rich archive of material”.

 German schools’ advisors on Immigrants in Britain, say “Chronicleworld.org Hier finden Sie viele News und Artikel über Black Britain”. <For further citations, see AskJeeves, and Excite and Google>.

British Council Germany tells its readers – “First for information, news and ideas shaping Black life in modern Britain. Chronicle is the online magazine for Britain’s Black community, with links to the best media on the web and lots of well written features”.

 The 100 Great Black Britons http://www.100greatBlackbritons.com/links.html cites  “Chronicle World – Changing Black Britain as a major resource Magazine addressing the concerns of Black Britons includes a newsgroup and articles on topical events as well as careers, business and the arts.”

 A Black student of commerce and marketing at the University of Birmingham sent thanks “for identifying Black communities, their media choices, and buying habits”.

A Black college student in upstate New York asked for help “with a thesis on the death of my godmother Cynthia Jarrett and the Broadwater Farm uprising in Tottenham 1985”

The top monthly queries drive traffic to the Chronicle website are certified by search agency Alexa.com. Topics include information technology in Black communities.

 About the author, editor
and publisher Editions Blair

Founded by Professor Thomas L Blair  in 1997, this article presents the introduction to the inaugural volume of his pioneering web site on the creative renewal of Black British and Afro-European communities.

Trained in the sociology of American, Brazilian and African Studies, he holds BA, MA, PhD degrees and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

Of African American-Caribbean heritage and long-time resident in England, his major digital works, eBooks, Black London eMonographs and Editions Blair eBooks are archived in the British Library, Social Welfare Portal  http://socialwelfare.bl.uk/subject-areas/services-activity/community-development/pub_index.aspx?PublisherID=149777&PublisherName=Editions+Blair