Chaos Engulfs Ebony Magazine Business

-- On July 23, 2020, the board of Ebony Media Holdings LLC filed for involuntary chapter 7 bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported. This comes weeks after the board fired the company's CEO, Willard Jackson, after accusing him of trying to take control of the business from the board, which is led by the company's creditors.

On July 31, Ebony Magazine Board Chairman Jacob Walthour Jr. wrote A Letter to EBONY Stakeholders. Referring to the bankruptcy filing, he wrote "As we go through this process, we know that not everyone is cheering for us. In fact, there is an individual who is messaging employees, issuing fraudulent media releases and holding himself out to be an "Ebony owner" in an attempt to extort and intimidate management, the board and employees who are working hard to rebuild our beloved EBONY. We are pursuing every legal avenue to end the misrepresentations and fabrications lobbied against the Company and its Board of Directors."

The company once had hundreds of employees and now has five. Reports say that editorial operations at Jet magazine are at a standstill.

Ebony's original publisher was Johnson Publishing Company, founded in 1945 by Chicago businessman John H. Johnson. Johnson died in 2005 and left the business to his daughter, Linda Johnson Rice. On June 14, 2016, Johnson Publishing Company sold Ebony and Jet magazines for $7.7 million to Clear View Group, a private equity company based in Texas owned by African-Americans. Michael Gibson is the chairman of Clear View Group and Willard Jackson is his business partner.

Clear View borrowed $4 million from Parkview Capital Credit LLC to make the purchase. Things began to unravel in 2017 when Clear View failed to make the first payment on the loan.

In 2019, what was left of Johnson Publishing Company was liquidated, including the Ebony and Jet magazine photo archive which fetched $30 million from a number of philanthropies.

The New York Post reported that an emergency hearing will be held on August 6, when the Clear View Group will try to stop the bankruptcy filing by Parkview Capital.

Lukas I. Alpert and Lee Hawkins wrote at the Wall Street Journal on July 26, 2020:
Behind the Fall of Ebony: Accusations of Fraud and a Fight Over Control of a Black Media Dynasty

Go to the Ebony magazine profile for more information about the magazine.

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