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When journalist-turned-publisher Rhonesha Byng co-founded BOMESI (the Black-Owned Media Equity & Sustainability Institute) alongside DéVon Christopher Johnson, the goal was simple. It was to ensure that brands and funders could find and sustain Black and diverse-owned media.
Five years on, BOMESI is moving beyond directories and conferences to develop financial tools and shared revenue systems, aiming to ensure the long-term survival of smaller publishers.
“We realized we were stronger together,” Byng told UrbanGeekz during an interview. “One of the first things we did was put together a database of Black-owned media platforms. We started with 50, and that’s grown to over 300.”
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From directory to infrastructure
BOMESI now operates on three pillars: ecosystem, education, and economic empowerment, and has been steadily building programs under each umbrella. One of the organization’s most important moves is the BOMESI Accelerator, a tailored program that helps Black and diverse publishers become “business-ready” for larger brand deals and ad partnerships. All cohorts to date have remained in operation after graduation, a notable success in a sector where many small publications fold after short funding cycles.
But perhaps the most interesting project Byng discussed is the Bomisi Scale, an IP-backed, weighted revenue model that lets groups of publishers win deals together while redistributing a portion of the proceeds to lift smaller sites.
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“Think of it like a weighted grade in school,” Byng explained. “The gifted kid pulls everybody else up, but the scale returns some of that value to smaller sites so they can reinvest and grow.”
The model pools participants into collectives: anchor sites (high traffic) help deliver deals while contributing a percentage back into the collective, so tugboats can become yachts. You could call it cooperative ad sales for the digital age, and Byng says BOMESI plans to productize the scale into a software tool that other newsrooms and brands can adopt.
A major boost, and what it means
In July, Press Forward, the nationwide initiative funding local and community news infrastructure, named BOMESI among its large-grant recipients, awarding the organization $750,000 to expand its ad network and accelerator work.
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The grant is explicitly intended to centralize ad sales/sponsorships with major brands while training outlets to adopt the model, a direct fit with BOMESI’s mission to increase revenue for local and diverse publishers.
Byng told UrbanGeekz the funding will let BOMESI move its Bomisi Scale from an MVP into a scalable 1.0 product, expand cohort capacity in the Accelerator, and underwrite the BOMESI Summit, a multi-day convening that functions as a community anchor for publishers and partners.
Rhonesha Byng and DéVon Christopher Johnson, CoFounders of BOMESI (the Black-Owned Media Equity & Sustainability Institute)
Community, revenue, and longevity
Byng repeatedly returned to two themes: community and direct audience relationships. “Your community is your audience,” she said. “First-party data and trust are the keys to sustainability.” For publishers, that means building subscription funnels, newsletters, events, and other direct lines rather than depending solely on platform distribution that can change overnight.
The Accelerator’s track record helps make that case: participants report life-changing outcomes, including one founder who, Byng says, told the cohort she wouldn’t have her business today without BOMESI’s support. That human story is crucial; it’s also the tangible proof funders and brands want to see when they write checks.
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Looking ahead to the BOMESI Summit and product rollout
BOMESI is already public about its annual Summit and its expansion plans. The Summit has recently returned to Detroit as a focal point for community-building among Black and diverse media owners; BOMESI has scheduled future programming and is preparing to open applications for Cohort 5 of the Accelerator. Byng said the team is preparing contracts, partners, and product launches well ahead of time, a sign that the organization wants to move quickly from pilot to scale.
Why entrepreneurs and brands should care
For entrepreneurs and advertisers, BOMESI’s work presents two key opportunities. First, partnership efficiency: brands benefit from a single point of entry to aggregated audiences across high-quality, diverse platforms, which is often more effective than managing multiple one-off deals. Second, impact and ROI: structured programs like the BOMESI Scale ensure both equitable distribution and measurable returns, enabling advertisers to meet their DEI commitments while delivering accountable results.
As Byng put it, “We want this moment to become a movement.” The next step is productizing the collective model so it’s easier for agencies and brands to participate at scale, and for smaller publishers to turn today’s short-term wins into sustainable businesses.
