Ebony Magazine

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 1:40pm on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Ebony magazine is in serious trouble, wrote Richard Prince at The Root on October 5, 2009:

"Ebony is “a brand that’s lost its value and cachet,” says Charles Whitaker, a former Ebony editor and now a professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism who led a 2007 study of the magazine. “No one was sure what the content of Ebony is and what it stood for,” Whitaker says. “And the ‘no one’ included advertisers. People who got it just felt a sense of loyalty.”

Operations at Johnson Publishing, like at so many mainstream and niche publishing companies, have been in a tumultuous state over the past few years. Nearly a year after her father died, Rice hired an editorial director, Bryan Monroe, a former executive at the now-defunct Knight Ridder newspaper chain."

The "Rice" referred to above is Linda Johnson Rice, the chairman and CEO of Johnson Publishing. Former editorial director Bryan Monroe left the company in April 2009.

The full story:
http://www.theroot.com/views/there-next-page-ebony

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 10:00pm on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

Ebony may be for sale, Newsweek magazine reported on September 25, 2009:

"It's been a year of excruciating decisions for publishing companies—layoffs, pullbacks, closures. Now it appears Johnson Publishing’s chairman and CEO, Linda Johnson Rice, has reached what must have been an agonizing decision: Johnson Publishing is seeking a buyer or investor for its flagship publication, Ebony, in an effort aimed at securing the survival of the nation's oldest magazine devoted to African-American life. It's unclear whether the company's other properties, including Jet, would be part of a possible sale.

According to media and investment executives familiar with the developments, Chicago-based Rice, the daughter of Ebony's legendary founder, the late John H. Johnson, has approached, among others, Time Inc., Viacom, and private investors that include buyout firms. Time Inc., the world's largest periodical publisher, already owns Essence, a monthly lifestyle, beauty, and fashion magazine for African-American women. Viacom, meanwhile, owns BET (Black Entertainment Television)."

The full story:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/216176

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 9:34pm on Sunday, May 10th, 2009

May 2009: Ebony magazine has named Terry Glover managing editor. Also, senior writer Adrienne Samuels Gibbs has been promoted to senior editor, and Margena A. Christian has been named senior writer.