Mira Lowe Named Editor of Jet Magazine

First Appointment Under Ebony-Jet Reorganization

Mira Lowe, a former Newsday associate editor brought to Johnson Publishing Co. two years ago as one of the first hires of editorial director Bryan Monroe, on Tuesday was named editor in chief of Jet magazine.

Lowe’s is the first major appointment to be announced since the financially troubled, privately held company confirmed in February it was undergoing a major reorganization in which staffers had to reapply for new jobs.

Jet, the pocket-sized weekly newsmagazine heavy on celebrity news and known throughout the years for its news tidbits and its "Beauty of the Week," had no editor in chief under its previous arrangement. The co-managing editors, Lowe and Malcolm West, reported to Monroe, who is editorial director of Ebony and Jet.

As reported in January, West took a buyout, as did the two managing editors at Ebony, Lynn A. Norment and Walter Leavy.

Staffers have said that the Chicago-based Ebony and Jet are to have their own separate editors in chief, with speculation varying about who those editors would report to. Monroe’s role is not mentioned in Tuesday’s news release. Lowe would apparently be the first woman to edit the magazine.

"In this newly created position, Lowe will oversee all aspects of the magazine’s editorial content, staffing and evolving direction on both print and digital platforms," the news release announced.

"Additionally, Lowe and her team will offer readers a behind-the-scenes view of JET on Twitter."

Lowe said in the release, ‘I am honored by this appointment and gladly accept the challenge of leading a magazine that is known for its legacy and service to a vast African-American audience. With new and interactive features in print and online, JET looks forward to engaging readers for many more years to come.’

‘Mira is bright and well-respected throughout the industry and has a tremendous sense of news judgment,’ said Anne Sempowski Ward, president and COO of black-owned Johnson Publishing Co., in the release. "Under her leadership, we will build on JET’s strengths and take the magazine from delivering the most important relevant news to our readers in the current weekly print layout to adding a daily and even hourly component.’

Lowe has worked at both Ebony and Jet. When she was named in 2007, Monroe said, "Mira will be working closely with Malcolm and Walter in the editing and production of both Ebony and Jet, as well as managing our copy editing process. Mira is a strong journalist and editor, as well as a veteran recruiter (she helped manage the Tribune Company’s METPRO program for young editors)." Metpro is a diversity program that trains beginning journalists.

Lowe is married to Herbert Lowe, a fellow former Newsday journalist who in February created a company called Aim High Media that he says hopes "to specialize in Web design and management; writing, editing and design for print and multimedia projects; nonprofit and corporate communications; media relations, copyediting, slide presentations, digital asset management and whatever other opportunities present themselves." When Herbert Lowe was president of the National Association of Black Journalists from 2003 to 2005, he called Mira Lowe "the first lady of NABJ."

Jet, first published in 1951, reported a circulation of 929,599 for the six months ending in June, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

But as Sam Fulwood III wrote for the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Jet’s 50th anniversary, "Those circulation figures are way too low because most people who read Jet don’t subscribe; they skim old, dog-eared copies that are passed along in barber shops, beauty parlors and doctor offices. Some media experts put Jet’s actual readership at 10 times the circulation.

"Jet’s highest moment came after the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till, a 16-year-old Chicago boy killed for whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. The magazine ran a graphic photo of Till’s corpse, focusing the rage of black Americans against racism and rallying many of them to the civil rights effort," Fulwood recalled.

"For most of the last 50 years, Jet has stood alone among print media in documenting the social, political, economic and cultural affairs of black America."

However, advertising revenue was down by 40.9 percent for the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with the previous year, according to the Publishers Information Service, and the magazine this year had to combine issues – calling them "double issues" – to save money.

Last week, Sylvester Monroe, senior editor of Jet’s sister publication, Ebony, left in frustration, he said, with the state of affairs brought on by the financial turmoil.

Despite the setbacks, Linda Johnson Rice, chairman and CEO of the company and daughter of founder John H. Johnson, has maintained, "I am deeply committed to maintaining our presence and long-standing legacy in the African-American community."

6 Journalists of Color Laid Off at Chicago Tribune

At least six journalists of color were among 53 editorial employees laid off on Wednesday at the Chicago Tribune, including Brenda Butler, who is president of NABJ-Chicago, the local affiliate of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Butler is a senior features editor for the Chicago Tribune magazine.

Others black journalists dismissed are photographers David Trotman-Wilkins and Bradley Piper,  picture editor Geoffrey Black, and Devona Alleyne, a copy editor and designer, according to Tribune staffers and other sources. Bob Sakamoto, a high-school sports reporter who is Asian American, was also laid off. Employees were still being notified in late afternoon.

"Editor Gerould Kern said in a letter to staff that cuts are part of a newsroom reorganization that ‘will focus us more clearly on our core mission’ going forward with a newsgathering team of around 430," Phil Rosenthal wrote on the Tribune Web site.

”With today’s actions, we are making the leap to a newsroom structure that we believe is sustainable barring further significant declines in advertising revenue,’ Kern wrote. "While some are leaving now, others will join the newsroom over time as we invest in new skills necessary to grow in the future.”

"I have been here going on 12 years," Trotman-Wilkins, 55, told Journal-isms. "My anniversary date had just passed. I started out as a Source/Photo Editor in 1998.

"It has been painful to watch good people being turned out with no prospects within the industry. Good thing Obama is going [to] support retraining programs."

Butler, who started at the Tribune in 1974, said she would be looking for a job, but "probably not in this field. I will still be involved in NABJ." 

Piper, 38, said he started with the Tribune Co. 17 years ago with CLTV, a 24-hour news channel, then came to the newspaper to help with its video operation and Internet site. He told Journal-isms he didn’t know what he would do next, and it would depend on what jobs were available considering the state of the business.

Unlike some of the others, Alleyne left for the day after being notified. "She was somebody we would like to have kept if conditions were different," said her supervisor, Joe Knowles, assistant managing editor for presentation.

It was just in February that the Tribune laid off Don Terry, a writer for the Chicago Tribune magazine, and perhaps seven or eight others. In August, more than 40 other newsroom employees were laid off. The parent Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy protection in December.

Kern said in his memo: "While some are leaving now, others will join the newsroom over time as we invest in new skills necessary to grow in the future. With a staff of about 430, this newsroom will remain one of the largest and most talented in the country.

"We are expanding our local news operation and establishing a new watchdog unit to increase our consumer and investigative coverage. Our digital staff has grown rapidly in recent months and is getting bigger as we develop new digital channels. A new production department combining copy editing, page design and photo editing will operate with a smarter, more streamlined process. At the same time, other areas are being restructured to align them with strategic priorities." [Added April 22]

• Donna Barrett, Editor & Publisher: High Time We Set the Record Straight on Newspaper ‘Myths’
  
• Michael Miner, Chicago Reader: 53 out at Tribune – victims of "changing priorities"
• Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune: Tribune Co. asks bankruptcy court to allow severance, bonus payments

Unity Calls for Diversity Summit of Newsroom Leaders

Unity: Journalists of Color is calling for a summit of newsroom leaders that would include all the "stakeholders" in newsroom employment, from the leaders of television networks to the Newspaper Guild, after last week’s diversity census showed that black and Asian American journalists left newsrooms last year at a greater percentage than others.

Such a summit could take place at the Aug. 12-15 Asian American Journalists Association convention in Boston, said Rafael Olmeda, president of the umbrella group.

The American Society of News Editors reported last week that, "American daily newspapers shed 5,900 newsroom jobs last year, reducing their employment of journalists by 11.3 percent to the levels of the early 1980s."

The loss of 5,073 white journalists represented an 11.15 percent loss of whites.

"But the number of black journalists, who now comprise 5.17% of newsroom employees, fell by 13.55%, and the number of Asian Americans, who make up 3.14% of newsrooms, fell by 13.36%, Unity said. Hispanic journalists, 4.47% of newsrooms, fell by slightly less than the overall total at 11.0%. Native American journalists, who comprise just 0.6% of newsrooms, actually increased their numbers by 3.17%," as Mark Fitzgerald reported in Editor & Publisher.

In a conference call on Tuesday, the presidents of Unity and the national associations of black, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American journalists said they had been telling the news industry for years that its future lies with a diverse workforce.

Ronnie Washines, president of NAJA, said he was particularly disappointed that the percentage of interns of color decreased from 28 percent to 26.4 percent last year and that only 16 percent of the journalists hired for their first full-time newsroom job were of color, down from 17.6 percent.

"Years of progress were erased," Sharon Chan, national president of the AAJA, said, adding that the only bright spot in the survey was the percentage of journalists of color working in online jobs.

It makes "no sense" for the number of Latinos in newsroom to drop when the number of Latinos in the general population is rising, said O. Ricardo Pimentel, president of NAHJ.

"The headline for me is that diversity has been demoted," added Barbara Ciara, NABJ president. She said the survey showed African Americans were "the single most targeted group for job losses in newsrooms across the country."

Olmeda said he envisioned a diversity summit including leaders of the media chains, the leadership of the broadcast networks, heads of the associations representing journalists of color, the American Society of News Editors, the Radio-Television News Directors Association, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Online News Association and the Newspaper Guild.

"It’s an opportunity for people of goodwill to get together and work out a solution," he said.

• Job losses set back newsroom diversity initiatives (Unity news release)¬†
• ASNE Census: Year over Year % Change (Unity report)

Newspaper Guild President Bernard J. Lunzer testifies before Congress Tuesday on "A New Age for Newspapers: Diversity of Voices, Competition and the Internet."  (Credit: Andy Zipser/Guild Reporter)

Is "Last Hired, First Fired" Hurting Diversity?

Given the hallowed union principle that seniority rules should govern who gets cut when layoffs are to be made, some have wondered whether those rules should be faulted for disproportionate cuts of journalists of color, who are often the last hired.

"The assumption . . . is not accurate," Bernard J. Lunzer, president of the Newspaper Guild-Communication Workers of America, told Journal-isms on Wednesday, but he said the issue is one that local units should be discussing.

The union leader said that historically, management has tried other methods, such as buyouts, to reduce staffs. More recently, a number of companies have resorted to layoffs, he said, but the newer trend seems to be "furloughing" employees for short amounts of time.

Still, Linzer said, "we have started the dialogue" over the issue. Should there be "caveouts" created in contracts, meaning that the seniority rules apply except when they would change the ratio of journalists of color?

Some guild locals have negotiated such caveouts, although when the seniority rule was abandoned at the San Francisco Chronicle, he said, the Guild was "whipsawed into it" by the Hearst Corp., which threatened to shut the paper.

Abandoning such rules is not a good idea, he said: "If you hand all the power to management in layoffs, you get the ‘God syndrome,’ and nobody gets any protection."

Lunzer noted that Rafael Olmeda, president of Unity: Journalists of Color, broached the subject in January at a "Future of the Media Industry" conference sponsored by the Guild in Baltimore, in a speech excerpted in the Guild Reporter, the union newspaper.

"We’re excited" by the prospect of the summit meeting that Unity has proposed, he said. "Fundamentally, we believe that when newspapers don’t look like the communities they report on, they’re not going to cover" them properly and "their products are not going to survive."

• Andy Zipser, Guild Reporter: What’s antitrust got to do with journalism?

 

Magazine Called Out on Photoshopping Obama Image

"The web is buzzing about The Washingtonian magazine’s choice to put a paparazzi photo of a buff and shirtless President Obama on the cover of its May issue," Susan Moeller, a professor at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism and its School of Public Policy, wrote Tuesday on the Huffington Post.

"The frenzy of comments about The Washingtonian’s decision are running across the gamut, from a reprise of the drooling appreciation for Obama’s taut abs first seen when the paparazzi photos of Obama on the beach hit in December: ‘Really hot Obama,’ ‘President Beefcake;’ to stinging political rebukes for what some take to be the magazine’s pandering to its audience and/or to the administration: ’embarrassing.’

"But I’d like to call your attention to what Washingtonian did with the original Bauer-Griffin photo. Said Leslie Milk, the magazine’s lifestyle editor, ‘I know we changed the color of his suit to red, and dropped out the background.’ In the original photo the president is wearing a black suit and walking from what appears to be sliding glass doors leading to a living room. What also appears to be altered from the original image is the contrast and the color balance of the president’s skin. On The Washingtonian’s cover the sun striking Obama’s chest makes him appear more golden, almost glistening.

"In the world of news, that’s unethical. The rule of thumb is, if you want to change what’s in the photo, choose another photo. Making Obama into a man wearing brilliant red surfer trunks, instead of a more modest black pair, making the image more dramatic by having him walking out of darkness, and changing the exposure so he looks more gilded changes viewers’ ideas about who the man is."

Washingtonian Editor John A. Limpert did not respond to a request for comment, but the magazine asked for reader reaction on its Web site. The comments tended not to be about the ethical issue, but whether the Washingtonian’s display demeaned the office of the presidency.

The American Society of Magazine Editors has not weighed in. It has previously on such issues.

As ethics professor Jeffrey L. Seglin noted in Folio, the magazine about magazines:

"When Us Weekly, ESPN the Magazine and Scholastic Parent and Child recently incorporated advertising elements with their covers, ASME took them each to task. ASME even saw fit to issue a new statement on its Web site addressing the issue: "Advertising on the cover suggests editorial endorsement of advertised products, indicates that editorial coverage is for sale and threatens editorial independence."

Suspect Tells Grand Jury About Chauncey Bailey Killing

"As Devaughndre Broussard spent hours on Tuesday telling a grand jury details about the killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men, his mother waited outside a closed door and said she still doubts her son pulled the trigger," Thomas Peele and Bob Butler wrote Tuesday for the Chauncey Bailey Project.

"’I am lost and confused,’ Audra Dixon said. She said she believes Broussard is ‘still covering up for somebody’ and did not shoot Bailey or the other man he has admitted killing, Odell Roberson.

"Broussard told grand jurors that he killed Bailey and Roberson on the order of former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV, and that another man, Antoine Mackey, helped him. He also testified that Mackey admitted to him that he killed a third man, Michael Wills.

". . . Bey IV is jailed without bail in an unrelated kidnapping and torture case. Mackey is in San Quentin Prison on burglary charges. Both, in jail interviews with the Chauncey Bailey Project, denied involvement in Bailey’s killing.

"Broussard told prosecutors that Bey IV kept a hit list of people "he wanted to get rid off" and that Bailey was on it along with other people he didn’t know. Broussard said Bey IV ordered him and Mackey to kill Bailey before the journalist could publish a story about the bakery in the Oakland Post.

"Broussard is to plead guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter for killing Bailey and Roberson . . . In exchange for his testimony he will receive a 25-year sentence. He faced life in prison without parole."

• Mary Ratcliff, San Francisco Bay View:¬†Coverage of Chauncey Bailey Murder dramatizes Need for Black Media
• Frank Smyth, Committee to Protect Journalists: In Oakland, progress in Bailey murder prosecution

Iran’s Nobel Laureate to Argue Saberi’s Appeal

Iran‚Äôs Nobel Laureate Dr. Shirin Ebadi will defend Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi during her appeal of an espionage conviction in Iran, Britain’s Sky News¬†reported on Wednesday.

"Ebadi reportedly told a German newspaper ‘The trial against Saberi was unfair and was not in line with [Iran’s] constitution .; . . On the family’s request, I have now taken over the case and will protest against the judgement," according to Sky News.

Separately, Iran’s judiciary spokesman said Tuesday that Saberi’s eight-year prison term may be reconsidered on appeal, an indication her sentence will be commuted, Ali Akbar Dareini reported¬†from Tehran for the Associated Press.

"Ali Reza Jamshidi’s statement was a rare prediction about a case from the judiciary and was the latest hint Iran could be backing off from the imprisonment of 31-year-old Roxana Saberi on charges of spying for the U.S."

Meanwhile, the Rev. Jesse Jackson has offered to travel to Iran to help release Saberi, CNN reported on Wednesday.

"’If our voices are heard in Iran today, I would be anxious to travel with a delegation to Iran, if we are permitted, and make an appeal for her freedom,’ said the longtime civil rights activist, according to his Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Jackson, 67, was speaking Tuesday at a peace conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia."

• Editorial, Washington Times:¬†A plea from Roxana Saberi’s fiance
• News release:¬†Medill to hold rally for Roxana Saberi

Laid-Off Atlanta Graphic Journalist Wants to Go Green

Overshadowed by the 74 people who took buyouts last week from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution were those who were laid off — the entire news art and news research departments.

Among those employees were African American graphic journalists Charles William Jones Jr. and Jemal Brinson.

Jones, who started as an intern at the paper in 1991 and returned in 2005, told Journal-isms, "I’m looking for a spot where I can assist at progressing the understanding of green energy.

"We hear the commercials about it but I see a huge disconnect for regular folk. I don’t think many see how they fit into the movement or how the movement can help them. I see [next] to nothing explaining to folk how it all works and/or why it really matters."

Brinson, 39, had been at the paper since 2005 and said he’d "like to stay in the industry."

• Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Washington, here I come

Short Takes

• "I’m someone who doesn’t tend to dwell in the past," Mark Whitaker, who left the leadership of Newsweek magazine to become a vice president of NBC News, told¬†Jon Friedman of MarketWatch. "Given what has happened at Newsweek and the world of news magazines, it was pretty clear that I’d left at a good time." Friedman, who sees bigger things for Whitaker, said the network news executive of two years "brings a magazine editor’s sensibility to the TV news world. ‘Newsweek trained me to have a pretty good sense about how big a story is and whether it would have legs,’ he says. ‘I bring a different skill set than a lot of my colleagues. I have different reflexes. They grew up in control rooms.’"
• "Yahoo Inc. posted drops in revenue and profit in new Chief Executive Carol Bartz’s first quarter on the job, and announced plans to cut about 675 workers from its payroll, as the tech industry showed signs of continued economic battering," Dan Fost reported Wednesday in the Los Angeles Times.
• "StreetWise, the Chicago publication sold by homeless people, will continue to print its weekly editions after a series of donations far exceeded the $75,000 the magazine said a week ago it needed to survive, said StreetWise board Vice Chairman Pete Kadens," the Chicago Tribune reported¬†on Wednesday. "By this morning, donors had given $190,000 ‚Äî with individual gifts ranging from $3 to $35,000."
• "In an April 21, 2008, New Yorker story, ‘Vengeance Is Ours,’ Pulitzer Prize-winning geography scholar Jared Diamond describes blood feuds that rage for decades among tribes in the Highlands of New Guinea," the Forbes magazine Web site reported on Tuesday. "Diamond tells the story using a central protagonist: Daniel Wemp, member of the Handa clan, a blood-thirsty warrior bent on avenging his uncle’s death. That quest, writes Diamond, touched off six years of warfare leading to the slaughter of 47 people and the theft of 300 pigs. . . . A two-page complaint filed in New York State Supreme Court on April 20 seeks $10 million from the New Yorker’s publisher, Advance Publications, claiming Diamond’s story falsely accused Wemp and fellow tribesman Isum Mandigo of ‘serious criminal activity’ and ‘murder.’ . . . A Wemp friend and legal adviser, Mako John Kuwimb, explains: ‘When foreigners come to our culture, we tell stories as entertainment. Daniel’s stories were not serious narrative, and Daniel had no idea he was being interviewed for publication.’"
• "NBC ‘Today’ show news anchor Ann Curry is heading to two war zones this week," the Associated Press reported¬†on Tuesday. "She is traveling to both Iraq and Afghanistan to report on how the wars are being reshaped under the administration of President Barack Obama. Her reports are to air on both the ‘Today’ show and NBC’s ‘Nightly News.’"
• In Los Angeles, "Sports Anchor Rick Garcia said his goodbyes to the the KTTV FOX 11 News Team on Monday night after a 22-year career with FOX," the station reported, providing Web-site viewers with "a video compilation of the team’s goodbyes from the FOX 11 10 p.m. News on Monday . . . as well as a look back at Rick’s time with the station."

   

• Brett Pulley, who reported for the New York Times, Forbes magazine and the Wall Street Journal before leaving journalism in 2007 to head an entertainment listings site, NewYork.com, has joined Bloomberg News. He told Journal-isms on Wednesday he is "working as an at-large reporter covering the media and entertainment industries. I’m based in New York, but assigned to a team in L.A., so I’ll spend time on both coasts. Back on the front lines ‚Äî and it feels great. As for NewYork.com, we made good progress building a company from nothing, but it remains under-capitalized, and this difficult economic environment made it necessary for me to get back to the business of journalism. (Which, by the way, I sorely missed over the past two years.) I still have an ownership stake in NewYork.com, and remain on the board. But now my first priority is my first love: good, meaningful stories."

   

• Herbert Lowe, a former president of the National Association of Black Journalists who recently founded Aim High Media, a Web design and communications company, is to receive the Communicator of the Year Award¬†this weekend from the alumni association at his alma mater, the J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University.¬†
• Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, former fashion writer at the Wall Street Journal, has started a blog about food, "A Tiger In The Kitchen." "I realize going from fashion to food is a little odd ‚Äî going from an industry where people don’t eat to an industry that’s all about eating! But the blog’s been fun to write so far," she told Journa-isms. "It’s got some investigative journalism in it, too. (Well, just a whiff.)"