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Is There a Next Page for Ebony?

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After 64 Years, an Iconic Magazine Hits the Ropes

"Four years ago, at the funeral of Ebony magazine founder John H. Johnson, then-Sen. Barack Obama remembered the man who almost single-handedly built the economic foundation for black-audience periodicals," this columnist wrote Monday on theRoot.com.

"Through his magazines, Obama told¬†the more than 2,000 mourners, ‘he shared . . . news, large and small, that had been ignored for so long.’

"Tavis Smiley also spoke about the legendary Johnson. ‘It never occurred to me to sell,’ Smiley recalled Johnson saying to him. And although the founder had died, Smiley rejoiced that Johnson Publishing Co. was ‘still No. 1, and still 100 percent black-owned.’

"It may not be for much longer. Newsweek reported recently that John Johnson’s daughter, Linda Johnson Rice, the chairman and CEO of Johnson Publishing, is seeking a buyer, investor or buyout firm to take over Ebony. (Newsweek said it’s unclear whether the company’s other properties, including Jet, would be part of a possible sale.) Now it falls to publishers, academics and journalists to debate what went wrong with the company, which was founded in 1945, and what the future holds. (To add to publishing industry woes, it was announced¬†last week that the print version of West Coast-based music publication URB magazine was going on hiatus.)

"Many industry watchers say they are disappointed with the lack of innovation at the company, failure to invest more in Ebonyjet.com, and in general, the absence of strong and nimble leadership needed to keep pace with the 21st century." (continued . . .)

Chauncey Bailey Project Wins 2 Online News Awards

The Chauncey Bailey Project, a collaboration of more than two dozen reporters, photographers and editors that investigated the death of the Oakland Post editor, won two awards at the Online News Association annual conference in San Francisco, ONA announced on Saturday.

It won the Knight Award for Public Service, which is accompanied by a $5,000 cash prize from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the award for "Investigative Journalism, Small Site."

They are just the latest awards collected by a project suggested on the Journal-isms message boards by Kenneth J. Cooper shortly after the Aug. 2, 2007, assassination of Bailey on an Oakland street in broad daylight.

The ONA said, "This entry required work within the community and led directly to the indictment of two men, an investigation of the Oakland Police Department and the resignation of the Chief of Police. The reporting is good and relentless under what were obviously and literally dangerous circumstances. The reporters didn’t shy away from exposing both criminals and police. The Chauncey Bailey Project is absolutely exemplary ‚Äî a type of investigation that we wish more organizations could pursue. Its role is necessary, the reporting great."

A winner in the "Breaking News, Small Site" category was "Massacre on Front Street" by Pressconnects.com/ the Press & Sun-Bulletin, in Binghamton, N.Y.

"This was clearly a huge story and they pounced on it. The interactive graphics showed what happened where and when. They did this very important story justice — as thorough as you could expect under the circumstances," the ONA said.

As the ONA met in San Francisco, major awards went to "a collection of linking tools that enables journalists to complement their original reporting, a hyperlocal site covering a Seattle neighborhood and a small site that covers a big city."

The conference "sold out with over 750 attendees. We actually did a little more than break even on it," Jane McDonnell, ONA executive director, told Journal-isms. "We’re thrilled that so many happy journalists showed up and our membership is growing."

 

Citizens Missing in Coverage of Economy, Study Finds

"Citizens may be the primary victims of the economic downturn, but they are not the primary actors in the public depiction of it. Instead, a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression has been covered in the media largely from the top down, told primarily from the perspective of the Obama administration and big business, with coverage reflecting the concerns of institutions more than the lives of everyday Americans," the Pew Research Center reported¬†on Monday.

"Media coverage of the economy has also largely centered on two cities, and focused on a relatively small number of major story lines.

"An analysis of a larger array of media using new ‘meme tracker’ technology developed at Cornell University also finds that phrases and ideas that reverberated most in the coverage came early on, mostly from government, particularly from the president and the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and that few Republicans in Congress articulated any memes that got much traction.

"What’s more, as the story moved away from Washington ‚Äî and the news about the economy seemed to improve ‚Äî the amount of coverage of the economy dropped off substantially."

 

Covers of ESPN: The Magazine featuring athletes Serena Williams and Dwight Howard were unveiled Monday on ABC’s "Good Morning America." The issue goes on sale Friday.

ESPN’s "Body Issue" Is "Journalistically Driven"

"Do athletes need to be nude these days in order to sell sports magazines on the newsstand?" Vanessa Voltolina asked last week in Folio magazine.

"ESPN The Magazine‚Äôs first ‘Body Issue’ will hit newsstands on October 9, featuring more than 30 male and female athletes posing nude or semi-nude. Already, it‚Äôs raised some eyebrows ‚Äî enough, in fact, that the magazine decided to host a media conference call this afternoon.

"On hand during the call were editor-in-chief Gary Belsky, editorial director and general manger Gary Hoenig, executive editor Sue Hovey, as well as USA Softball‚Äôs Jessica Mendoza, one of the issue‚Äôs athlete-models. The editors said the issue was meant as a ‘photographic and journalistically-driven’ exploration of the athletic form. (This issue’s six covers, featuring a different athlete on each, will be kept under wraps until next week, the company said.)

"Content, they said, will include an essay about how athletes use sex and physicality to sell themselves, an article focused on the creation of realistic video game avatars (with vendor EA and athlete Kobe Bryant) and a story based on the staff’s participation in an ACL repair surgery. And, of course, plenty of male and female athletes baring it all."

CNN’s "Latino in America" Series Airs Oct. 21, 22

CNN will extend its acclaimed ‘ . . . in America’ series of documentaries with a two-night, four-hour event, ‘Latino in America,’ this October," CNN announced.

"Reported by anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien, the ambitious documentary initiative examines the growing diversity of America, revealing insight into a changing nation on the eve of the U.S. census that is expected to officially confirm that Latino Americans are the largest minority group within the country.

"Two, two-hour documentaries will air at 9 p.m. and 12 a.m. ET and PT and simulcast in English on CNN/U.S. and in Spanish on CNN en Espa?±ol on Oct. 21 and Oct. 22; CNN International will also broadcast the series (date and time to be announced). ‘Latino in America’ was filmed in high definition.

‚Äú’As the face of America changes profoundly, CNN continues to demonstrate that we are the only cable news network dedicated to delivering a diversity of opinions and coverage,’ said Jon Klein, president CNN/U.S. ‘This landmark series will showcase dramatic personal stories from across the sweep of Latino-American society, and move the dialogue well beyond limited partisan discussions of immigration.’"

Media Begin "Surge" in Afghanistan Coverage

"Oct. 7 marks the eighth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, and with the White House facing critical choices on troop augmentation, news organizations have begun their own surge in coverage," Marisa Guthrie wrote Monday for Broadcasting & Cable.

"For cash-strapped networks emerging from intense multi-year coverage of the Iraq war, Afghanistan is a minefield of risk, not the least because news personnel have been repeatedly kidnapped by the Taliban and their civilian cohorts.

‚Äú’Baghdad was a civil war and it was very easy to get caught in the middle of that,’ says NBC News’ Richard Engel during a phone call from Kabul. ‘Here, it’s an insurrection. You can’t just get into a car and drive up to Kunar province. You probably wouldn’t come back. It would be a one-way trip.’

"Indeed, reporters are increasingly getting caught in the crossfire. An Associated Press reporter lost a foot in an IED attack in August, the same month that CBS News Radio correspondent Cami McCormick was seriously injured during an attack in Logar province that killed an American soldier.

" . . . But with violence escalating and the debate over troop deployments figuring to be another litmus test for the Obama presidency, ramped-up coverage is compulsory. Networks still must send their own correspondents — and occasionally their star anchor — to maintain credibility."

Meanwhile, MSNBC announced¬†last week that, "Coinciding with the 8th anniversary of the launch of the war in Afghanistan and amidst a growing policy debate, MSNBC will premiere ‘Tip of the Spear,’ a one-hour special documentary on Sunday, October 11th at 8 PM ET.

"MSNBC’s ‘Tip of the Spear’ documentary offers a powerful yet intimate look at the lives of soldiers at the front lines responsible for carrying out US policy. The documentary is based on Richard Engel’s ‘NBC Nightly News’ series of the same name, which received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast and for Best Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast, a Peabody Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Continuing Coverage."

Reporter’s Tales of Racism Set France on Edge

"When Lylia Kateb’s French manager introduced her recently to the big boss, he added reassuringly: ‘But don’t worry, she’s a decent person.’ Despite being an Arab, was the implication," Emma Charlton wrote¬†Sunday for Agence France-Presse.

"Lylia’s tale of the slights faced as a young French woman of North African descent ‚Äî even as a trained engineer ‚Äî was one of hundreds of accounts of everyday racism mailed in to Le Monde newspaper last week.

"In the year that Barack Obama was sworn in as US president, Aziz Medjeber told of having to change his name to the more French-sounding Laurent before he could find a job in Paris.

"Pregnant with her first child, Lylia admitted she was worried about giving him an Arab-sounding name.

"The spark for the outpouring of real-life stories was an article by Le Monde reporter Mustapha Kessous, who told of his own experience of prejudice.

"Being turned away from a club or fancy restaurant, stopped and searched by the police, told the job or apartment is already taken or having to put up with a racist joke: for many in France his story struck a powerful chord.

"Within hours of publication the article drew 200 comments and was shared hundreds of times on Twitter and Facebook, where users were spotted changing their profile names to ‘Mustapha’ in sympathy, according to Le Monde.

"’Mustapha Kessous is every one of us,’ ran an op-ed piece the following day as TV and radio debates raged about the hard truths of racism in modern France.

"For days the 30-year-old journalist’s name was the most searched-for term on the French Internet and one week on his story was the second most commented in the site’s history with 464 support messages."

African Americans, Latinos Like Mobile Devices

From the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, which reported Friday on “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age":

"Between the end of 2007 and early 2009, roughly 48 percent of African Americans and 47 percent of English-speaking Latinos accessed the Internet via a mobile device as opposed to 32 percent of the general population. As reported in 2009 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, African Americans on any given day are 70 percent more likely to access the Internet on a handheld than white Americans."

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