Glenn Burkins never imagined that he would become an entrepreneur.  But since starting his website QCityMetro.com in December 2008, Burkins has learned what it takes to become a risk taker in the delivering of the news, especially when the target is the niche African-American market in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Burkins started his journalism career as an intern at The Los Angeles Times, graduating to his first full-time job at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, where he covered business and the tourism industry.  

He eventually went to The Philadelphia Inquirer where for five years he wrote a highly popular personal finance column for the business section. The Inquirer recognized Burkins’ talents by promoting him to the African correspondent’s posting in Johannesburg where he covered the historic election of Nelson Mandela, the 1984 genocide in Rwanda and the Ebola outbreak in the former Zaire.

In 1996, Burkins joined the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal, where his duties ranged from covering labor to the Clinton White House. He left the Journal five years later to become the business editor at The Charlotte Observer, winning numerous awards for the section.   In 2005 he was promoted to deputy managing editor, overseeing the metro, business, state, regional and investigative staffs.

Burkins started QCityMetro.com in 2008 to specifically serve the city’s African American community and to “create a sustainable model for black media in the online age.”  He serves as editor, publisher, sales manager, creative director, accountant and so on – the typical life of an entrepreneur in today’s fragmented media market.   So far Burkins has earned 30,000 monthly unique users and what he calls “a modest” profit, augmented by two recent sponsorship deals with major organizations.