[1] The Root was owned by Graham Holdings Company through its online subsidiary, The Slate Group.

In July 2017, the blog Very Smart Brothas, co-founded by Damon Young and Panama Jackson, became a vertical of The Root.

"[10] The Root 100 is the magazine's annual "list of the 100 most important black influencers between the ages of 25 and 45.

"[11] This list has been published since 2011, when it began ranking honorees using an influence score that resulted from a mathematical formula developed by scholar Omar Wasow.

The list has had a wide variety of people from celebrities such as Donald Glover, writers like Roxane Gay, and athletes.