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Ebony Names Two Editors

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Think Twice About "Reverse Discrimination" Term

 

Publication Moves to Rebuild Editorial Ranks

Johnson Publishing Co. moved to rebuild the editorial ranks of Ebony magazine on Friday, naming Terry Glover as managing editor, Adrienne Samuels Gibbs as senior editor and Margena A. Christian as senior writer. All already work at the company. 

The moves come after last week’s resignation of Bryan Monroe as editorial director of Ebony and Jet; the resignation of Sylvester Monroe the week prior as a senior editor, the departures of managing editors Lynn A. Norment and Walter Leavy, who took early retirement offers, and the promotion of Mira Lowe to editor in chief of Jet magazine. Lowe had worked with both Ebony and Jet before her promotion.

Still to be named as the publications reorganize is the position of Ebony editor in chief. The editorial director’s position held by Monroe has been eliminated, spokeswoman Wendy E. Parks confirmed.

As with many publications, Ebony, the nation’s largest black-oriented magazine, has been hit hard by the economic downturn and¬†strapped financially. Although Ebony boasted a circulation of 1.45 million as of June 30, advertising pages were down 22.1 percent in 2008.

When he left, Sylvester Monroe said, "I was so miserable it was hard to come to work." 

Glover, EbonyJet.com’s senior online editor, "will be directly responsible for conceptualizing content with the editorial team as well as tracking the planning and execution of EBONY magazine," an announcement said. "During her career, she has held numerous roles including managing editor at Savoy magazine, Chicago editor for Uptown magazine and digital editor for Playboy.com."

‘Eric Easter and I have spent the last two years working with the digital staff to build a phenomenal website," Glover was quoted as saying. "Taking that forward thinking to the publishing side is an amazing proposition. As the book continues to evolve, we have a great opportunity to expand the magazine and resonate with readers in an even more significant way.’

Gibbs has been Ebony senior writer for nearly three years. She came to the magazine after working at the Boston Globe, St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times and Miami Herald.

"Christian, who has penned numerous cover stories for JET during the past 14 years, has appeared on E! networks’ ‘True Hollywood Stories’ (Hip-Hop Wives) and the networks’ ‘Forbes Top Cash Kings of Hip Hop.’ Recently, she was featured on the Biography Channel’s profile of media mogul Tyler Perry. In addition, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson featured her in his book, ‘Why I Love Black Women,’" the announcement said.

"She has held numerous positions at JET where she ascended from assistant editor and associate editor to features editor."

Meanwhile, Norment was one of four journalists named to the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.

"Norment has written and edited for EBONY Magazine in Chicago since 1977," NABJ said in its announcement Friday.

"She has worked to guide young journalists while bringing objective, endearing reporting of the nation’s black artists and entertainers to EBONY readers for three decades. A native of Bolivar, Tenn., who helped de-segregate her local high school, Norment went on to receive a full scholarship at Memphis State University. Her writing talent and leadership traits were quickly evident to EBONY, which hired her after just two freelance assignments. Rising to the rank of managing editor, Norment has helped the sixty-year-old magazine to maintain a fresh voice and embrace new media, making her a well-respected leader in the industry. She has held numerous leadership positions for NABJ including chairperson for the 1997 Convention in Chicago which was attended by President Bill Clinton; chairperson for the 25th Anniversary; and a former vice-chair of the NABJ A&E Task Force."

The other honorees are Earl Caldwell, a co-founder of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, the late Peggy Peterman, columnist for the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, and the late Larry Whiteside, sports columnist at the Boston Globe.

"As a reporter, Caldwell documented the Black Panthers from the inside in the 1970s, and became embroiled in a key Supreme Court decision clarifying reporters’ rights when the FBI tried to press Caldwell to be an informant," the announcement said. "His career with The New York Times, New York Daily News and other papers spans more than four decades. He is also a founding member of the steering committee of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, as well as the Washington-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Caldwell witnessed and chronicled some of the most important civil rights events of the past 40 years and was the only reporter present when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. As a writer-in-residence at the Maynard Institute, Caldwell is writing ‘The Caldwell Journals,’ a serialized account of the black journalist movement spawned by the 1960s civil rights movement," NABJ said.¬†

"The 1989 NABJ Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Peterman spent 31 years in the newsroom of the St. Petersburg Times where she was a groundbreaking reporter, columnist and editorial writer. Peterman . . . generously devoted her time to the St. Petersburg community, where among many other activities she founded and directed a black history pageant, mentored young journalists and became a minister late in life. . . . After 20 years in news features, in 1994, she joined the Times editorial board and wrote about social, international and children’s issues. A scholarship at Florida A&M University is named in her honor.

"Whiteside, a 1999 NABJ Lifetime Achievement Award Winner and 2008 National Baseball Hall of Fame writer inductee, was the first African-American beat sports writer for the Boston Globe. Whiteside was also only the third African-American recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, given by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in 2008. . .¬† In 1971, Whiteside started The Black List to help sports editors find qualified black journalists to hire."

Grangenois Named Publisher of Chronicle of Higher Ed

Mireille Grangenois, who started her career in newsrooms 30 years ago but left after a decade for positions on the business side of newspapers, in new media and in public relations, has been named publisher of the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Grangenois, 53, will oversee advertising for the two newspapers and its three Web sites – http://www.chronicle.com, http://philanthropy.com, and Arts & Letters Daily, http://www.aldaily.com/ – as well as its newsletters and special reports, including The Chronicle Review, The Chronicle of HIgher Education Inc. announced on Thursday.

Grangenois told Journal-isms that in today’s tough economic times, philanthropy and higher education are in the thick of seeking and promoting new economic models. "Innovation and new ways of doing things. Have you ever known of a time when we needed that more?" she asked.

The Chronicle publications were among the first to be on the Web, she said. "I’m joining a very nimble and very smart team of leaders."

"With the appointment of Grangenois, The Chronicle has redefined the publisher’s role to include oversight of all revenue-producing areas – including display advertising, classified, and circulation – as well as marketing and new-product development," the Chronicle’s announcement said.

‘We are delighted to have a professional with such a breadth of media experience in both editorial and business taking the reins at this critical juncture in the Chronicle’s history,’ said Philip W. Semas, editor in chief of The Chronicle of Higher Education Inc., in the release. ‘Her wide-ranging background will be a tremendous asset as we work to strengthen our existing businesses, in print and online, and develop new services and sources of revenue. She also understands the important roles that higher education and philanthropy play in society and the important roles that our publications play in those fields.’

Grangenois began her newspaper career as a reporter at the Baltimore Sun in 1978. She went on to be a correspondent for Business Week magazine in New York and Detroit and a reporter for USA Today and Gannett News Service in Arlington, Va.

"In 1988 she became director, minority affairs, for the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Reston, Va. From 1990 to 1998, she held positions with Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. In her last position there, she served as director of retail advertising," according to a bio.

"While at The Baltimore Sun from 2000 to 2007, Grangenois oversaw a 200-person sales division, and served as vice president for marketing and interactive media and as general manager of baltimoresun.com. For the past two years, she has been a managing director at Burson-Marsteller, a worldwide public relations firm, where she created . . . a new multicultural practice serving clients such as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the United Negro College Fund, and Amgen, a human-therapeutics company.

"Grangenois is married to Steven Holmes, former New York Times and Washington Post journalist who now is CNN’s executive director for Standards and Practices."

After the bloodletting, a reorganization was announced Friday. (File photo/Baltimore Sun)

Few of Color in Baltimore Sun’s Reorganization

After laying off 61 people — including at least eight of color — in its newsroom, the Baltimore Sun on Friday announced a reorganization plan to implement what spokeswoman Renee Mutchnik had said would help transform it into "a 24-hour, local news-gathering media company so we can more effectively gather content and distribute it among our different platforms: print, online and mobile."

In the staff memo, few journalists of color were listed as participants.

Sam Davis, assistant managing editor for recruiting and staff development and the highest ranking journalist of color, told Journal-isms his role was unaffected.

Named in the announcement were columnist Jean Marbella as politics and government editor; Michelle Deal-Zimmerman as one of four content editors for lifestyle, and Maryann James, community coordinator, lifestyle.

The roles become effective on Monday.

Columnist Tells Readers, "My Cancer is Gone"

"To my dear readers," columnist Mary Mitchell began her Chicago Sun-Times blog on Wednesday.

"Words cannot adequately express my appreciation for your prayers, messages of encouragement, flowers and cards.

"As expected, I faced my fight against breast cancer with the unswerving love and devotion of my family and friends.

"But I also had the support of strangers, many of whom shared comforting expressions of faith and hope. Some of these supporters were fans. Some were critics. All who reached out shared their belief that I could conquer the crippling fear of a cancer diagnosis.

"On Wednesday, I got good news from Dr. Andrea Madrigrano, the surgeon who performed the first phase of my treatment: my cancer is gone."

Mitchell disclosed her cancer to readers on April 13, saying she had been diagnosed a month earlier.

"I spent days weeping and praying before I had the strength to even begin researching my disease," she said.

Credit: Tim Jackson

Flu Threat Said to Be Dwarfed by Gun Violence

"The deadly contagion is spreading, striking down young and old, well-heeled and downtrodden, sophisticates and illiterates. Last year alone, the affliction killed thousands in Mexico and even more in the United States," Cynthia Tucker wrote Wednesday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"Not swine flu. Gun violence. While federal and state authorities are preoccupied with preventing a swine flu pandemic from overwhelming the United States, the epidemic of gun violence rages on, unabated and little noted.

". . . We have an odd way of assessing risks. While swine flu may yet emerge as a full-scale pandemic, it hasn’t proved especially lethal so far. Even in Mexico, where public health facilities are not as well developed as in the United States, the death toll has crept past 150 but hasn’t claimed lives on the scale of drug-related gun violence."

Too Much on Obama’s Personal Life, Poll Says

"Most Americans say that the news media has devoted too much coverage to Barack Obama’s family and personal life during his first months as president, but the right amount of coverage to his leadership style and his policy proposals," the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reported on Wednesday.

"The latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted April 24-27 . . . finds that just over half (53%) of the public says there has been too much coverage of Obama’s family and personal life, while 40% say the amount of coverage has been about right. Just 4% say there has been too little on this topic.

"By contrast, the public believes news organizations are devoting the right amount of coverage to Obama’s leadership style and the way he is managing his job (60% right amount) and the policies he has proposed (58%). In terms of policy proposals, however, more than twice as many say there has been too little coverage than too much coverage (27% vs. 12%).

"A separate news content analysis released April 28 by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that Obama has enjoyed substantially more positive coverage than either of his predecessors during his first months in the White House. And it finds that the coverage has focused significantly more on his personal and leadership qualities than the early coverage of either George W. Bush or Bill Clinton."

Meanwhile, Obama’s primetime news conference Wednesday averaged 18.8 million viewers across the three broadcast networks that aired it, David Tanklefsky reported in Broadcasting & Cable. That number was down from the 29.5 million who tuned in on the four broadcast networks for the Mar. 24 news conference. The Fox broadcast network, which chose not air Wednesday’s event, did not see improved ratings for "Lie To Me," though the network did have the highest rating of the hour as broadcast audiences watching Obama were splintered across¬†the three networks, Tanklefsky wrote.

Think Twice About "Reverse Discrimination" Term

"First of all, I don’t believe there’s anything such as reverse discrimination. You can be discriminated against because you’re white or black or Asian. But there’s no thing as reverse discrimination. It’s a misnomer," lawyer Darrell S. Gay of the DLA Piper law firm told the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a 2007 hearing.

He was right, but opponents of affirmative action have succeeded in making the term part of the political ‚Äî and media ‚Äî discourse. Those who use it often don’t realize they are taking sides in an argument.

The term is in the news again because the Supreme Court began hearing arguments last month in a landmark case filed by 18 firefighters, 17 white  and one Latino, against the city of New Haven, Conn., who say the city threw out the results of promotion tests because no African Americans qualified.

The Justice Department stopped short of saying the firefighters’ case should be dismissed, instead recommending that it be remanded to a lower court to determine if the city’s decision was a pretext for intentional discrimination, as Jesse Washington of the Associated Press reported.

But the term "reverse discrimination" is not in the Justice Department’s friend of the court brief, a department spokesman told Journal-isms.

Nor is it in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, national origin, or religion and is the basis for most anti-discrimination legal action.

But it’s all over an Associated Press story, for example, that leans heavily on quotes from Roger Clegg, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, "a conservative think tank that advocates eliminating race and ethnic considerations."

The term apparently began in the 1970s, promoted by those who wanted to equate efforts to redress discrimination with the original discrimination. In the same spirit, Ward Connerly, who crusades from state to state against affirmative action, calls his organization the American Civil Rights Foundation.

Dianna Johnston, an assistant legal counsel at the EEOC who specializes in Title VII, told Journal-isms, "A claim of race discrimination can be brought regardless of whether alleged discrimination is because the complainant is African-American, Caucasian, Asian, or any other racial group."

Asked if the commission ever uses the "reverse discrimination" phrase, she said, "it recognizes the term but analyzes race discrimination cases the same, regardless of the race of the victim of discrimination."

"United in Marriage, Separated by Red Tape"

Kimi Yoshino, a Los Angeles Times journalist on assignment in Baghdad, fell in love with an Iraqi reporter for the paper. But it’s his brother who is let into the United States as her husband languishes, the Times said in summarizing Yoshino’s first-person story, which appeared on Wednesday. A pocket video camera became Yoshino’s constant companion, she wrote, and through e-mailed video journals her husband met her friends and discovered her neighborhood. (Credit: Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

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