There’s a new app in town for those pursuing all-Black media content. Veteran entrepreneur Cary Wheelous founded Hayti, a Durham, NC-based news aggregation platform highlighting Black publishers’ content, Grepbeat reported.
The idea for Hayti popped into Wheelous’ head once a wave of disappointment hit at the realization of the lack of Black content from news publications, podcasts, etc.
And even with the presence of Black media content, the algorithm would hide Black content in a frenzy of mainstream content. Wheelous ultimately developed the app, and his startup would land NC IDEA’s $10K MICRO grant in October.
Hayti is an easy-to-use app where users can find news stories in an easy-to-navigate hub – from entertainment to current events. Users can expect to receive their news more efficiently. They can personalize their feed with preferred publishers, content creators, podcasts, topics, etc.
“When I was growing up, I realized that Black history and culture was often hard to find,” Wheelous said. “Our history is vast and so broad, covering so many different spectrums, topics and categories. With so much information out there, I wanted to make sure that every single day I learned something new and that I would be able to share that information with all of our users so that they can be able to learn something that they never knew that existed.”
Hayti has over 2,000 podcasts and over 200 news publications (online and print publications and magazines). The app serves Android and Apple users and gives underrepresented journalists a platform for their words.
Wheelous drew inspiration from NC’s “Black Walk Street,” Hayti, an African-American community that thrived before Durham’s urban renewal projects permanently changed the town.
Hayti came amid the decrease in Black publications over the years in NC and nationwide due to media outlets ultimately going digital.
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