Gooch, Bonita

Bonita Gooch, like many small Kansas newspaper owners, wears many hats. She’s a reporter, editor, photographer, salesperson, and team leader. However, as the owner of Kansas’ only newspaper focused on the news and issues of Kansas’ African-American community, Bonita proudly wears the title of community builder.

Bonita discovered her love for journalism as a student at Wichita North High School. Encouraged by friends who shared how much fun they were having working on the school newspaper and yearbook, Bonita signed up for the entry-level journalism class. She was hooked, and during her junior year served as a reporter on the school newspaper and during her senior year as editor of the yearbook. An outgoing individual, she instantly loved conducting interviews, attending events on behalf of the paper, and the concept of design as an element of communication. 

When the owner of the local Black newspaper learned about her interest in journalism, he  offered her a job covering stories of interest to community youth and completing the weekly “strip” and wax layout of the newspaper.

At the University of Kansas’ William Allen White School of Journalism, Bonita switched to Radio, TV and Film as a major. Frustrated by the low paying and limited job opportunities, she returned to KU and completed a Master’s Degree in Public Administration in Urban Management. Followed by a series of entrepreneurial adventures, in 1996, 23 years after graduating high school, Bonita decided to return home to raise her 3-year-old daughter Lauren and be closer to family.

Initially, she worked in a family-owned business, but it wasn’t long before her father, U.L. “Rip” Gooch, suggested purchasing the city’s new Africa-American newspaper, The Community Voice. The paper had been started two years earlier by former state legislator Billy McCray and his wife Yvette. After Yvette’s death, Billy decided to sell the paper. 

Thanks to more than a gentle nudge by her father, Bonita purchased the paper. She’s never looked back. 

From a small monthly newspaper, Bonita has grown The Community Voice into a trusted force across the state and in the Kansas City metro area. 

What she quickly learned was the powerful role a quality newspaper played in building, strengthening and connecting the African-American community. Recognizing that role, across the past three decades, Bonnita built a reputation for The Community Voice as a medium that could be trusted to speak honestly to the community about issues and what they mean to the community.

While news in The Community Voice is often not covered by other media, when the topics are the same, they are delivered to the paper’s readers with their interest in mind. 

Encouraged by African-American leaders from across the state, in 2015, Bonita expanded the publication’s reach outside Wichita and across the I-70 corridor, helping to connect Black residents across the state. Finally, in an effort to grow her readership base, in 2017, Bonita expanded the publication into the Kansas City metro area, where the population of African Americans is more than double the Black population in the whole state of Kansas. 

With this expansion, during a period of declining newspaper circulation, Bonita more than quadrupled the print circulation of The Community Voice, positioning the publication among the state’s largest non-daily newspapers.

Bonita has continued to grow her team, and together they’ve enhanced the publication’s technology systems, enhanced their online offerings, increased digital revenue, and expanded their social media outreach.  Through the years, Gooch and her team have regularly engaged face-to-face with the community through a diverse selection of community programs and events including the NorthEast Wichita (NEW) Awards, the Financial Freedom Expo, The Camellia Gooch Lee Heart of the MatterLunch/Walk, Black Legislative Day at the Capitol and many other community facing events.    For six years, Bonita was the co-host of The Community Voice Radio show, a Sunday morning talk show on KDGS, 93.5 FM radio station in Wichita.  With guests, Bonita and co-host Mike Kinard delved deeper into the issues covered in The Voice. 

Best of all, since purchasing the newspaper, Gooch has gotten up every morning and loved what she does. More than just being proud of putting out a newspaper, she’s proud of the role the publication has played in reporting on and preserving the community’s culture, providing news and information in a manner the community has grown to trust, and the role The Community Voice has played in strengthening, building and connecting the community.