Johnson: Ebony, Jet are vital to black community

When Johnson Publishing canceled the Ebony Fashion Fair for the first time in 51 years, the financial woes of declining advertising sales hammering Ebony, the nation's oldest black-owned magazine, became even more apparent.

The news of Fashion Fair's cancellation was combined with a grim report concerning the status of Johnson Publishing's finances: The company is seeking an investor to keep Ebony, its flagship publication, afloat.

Like all print magazines and newspapers, Ebony is feeling the pinch of our sluggish economy as well as the loss of advertising dollars that have flowed to the Internet. The Publishers Information Bureau reported that Ebony's ads decreased by 33 percent during the first quarter of 2009, and revenues fell to $18.8 million from $27.7 million in 2008. Earlier this month, the Media Industry Newsletter listed Ebony's advertising pages down by 40 percent.

Having to pursue an investor for Ebony was not a choice Johnson Publishing chairman and CEO Linda Johnson Rice wanted to be forced to make. Her father, the late John H. Johnson - founder of the Chicago-based company - was known as the dean of black publishing. He built a multimillion-dollar empire that still boasts the largest African-American readership.

Johnson established his company in 1942 with a $500 loan he acquired using his mother's furniture as collateral. His first publication was Negro Digest, a monthly magazine that featured news of interest to African Americans. By 1945, the circulation of Negro Digest reached 50,000 and Johnson launched Ebony. Ebony soon became a coffee table feature in many African-American homes and an influential periodical that I and other black Gen-Xers grew up reading.

Along with its sister publication Jet, Ebony reached its peak in the 1990s with Johnson Publishing grossing profits of over $300 million.

Johnson always wanted his company to remain within his family, but that probably will not be an option now, as his daughter must make some difficult business decisions. More important, Ebony, like other mainstream publications, is going to have to find inventive ways

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