 | |
Type of site | Entertainment News |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Editor | Angelica Nwandu |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Launched | March 2014; 11 years ago (2014-03) |
| Current status | Active |
The Shade Room (TSR) is a media company, founded byAngelica Nwandu in March 2014.Instagram-based, The Shade Room offers celebrity and trending news on an hourly basis, predominantly within the African American community;The New York Times called it the "TMZ of Instagram".[1][2] "Shade" in this case refers to a slang term for quips or wisecracks, especially those made with the intent of debasing their target(s).[1]
Nwandu lives and works fromLos Angeles and employs a staff of five working on The Shade Room.[2] The Shade Room has also been compared toMediaTakeOut with one exception, the majority of The Shade Room's news is reported primarily onInstagram.[1]
Nwandu avoided the typical blog format in favor of publishing full-length stories on Instagram.[2] Nwandu found Instagram suited to her vision for The Shade Room due to its image-based format.[3] After getting established in the Instagram format, the site was then expanded to include community news, trending news, and user interaction. The Shade Room refers to readers as "roommates", who often provide leads on celebrities to The Shade Room personnel.[citation needed]
Readers of The Shade Room are called "Roommates" because they "live" in The Shade Room, some visitors return on a daily basis.[4]
By the end of 2015, the site was reported to have 2.6 million followers,[5] although the company has less than a dozen employees.[citation needed]
In June 2016,Cosmopolitan reported that The Shade Room's followers across platforms totaled more than eight million people.[6]
The site now boasts more than 17 million followers and has since launched a new brand, The Shade Room Teens, that has 1.2 million followers.
The high readership has drawn celebrity attention to The Shade Room and some have even participated directly on the site. Nwandu no longer is the primary voice of the site, having stepped back to allow others participate.[7]
In October 2020, The Shade Room reported 21 million followers on its Instagram account.
On October 10, 2015, The Shade Room was one of the first to report thatLamar Odom was found at Dennis Hoff's Love Ranch in Nevada.[8]
On December 12, 2015,Countess Vaughn, former star of the hit showMoesha posted an apology to Brandy onInstagram. This apology was monumental as Brandy toldVibe Magazine in 1998 that Vaughn left the show out of jealousy. The Shade Room was the first to report the apology with platforms like Vibe,Black Entertainment Television and Rolling Out Magazine covering the story shortly thereafter.[5]
In January 2016, The Shade Room covered the love triangle brewing betweenSoulja Boy, Nia Riley and Nas Smith, all reality stars from the hit showLove & Hip Hop: Hollywood. This controversy sparked an original song where The Shade Room was mentioned in the lyrics.[9]
Recognizing founder Nwandu on its 201630 Under 30 list,Forbes said she "revolutionized celebrity gossip" with the founding of The Shade Room.[10]TechCrunch named her to its list of "18 Female Founders Who Killed It in 2015"[11] andBuzzFeed says Nwandu is "figuring things out faster than everyone else."[12]