Chicago Defender Employee Directory
Newspaper PublishingIllinois, United States11-50 Employees
Chicago Defender is an African-American newspaper serving the Chicagoland area for more than a century. Based in Chicago, Illinois, it operates in the newspaper publishing industry and serves a readership focused on the African-American community in the region. The publication has earned recognition, including the 2009 NNPA John B. Russwurm Award for Best African-American newspaper in the country, and it organizes the Bud Billiken Day parade and picnic, started in 1929 as a major community event noted as the second-largest parade in the nation. The Defender was acquired by Real Times Media LLC in 2003 and shifted from a primarily printed newspaper to a digitally oriented content platform that emphasizes online editorial, events, and archival publishing. In 2025, it launched the Women of Excellence program to recognize Black women leaders in the Chicago area.