Maynard Institute archives

Black Enterprise Takes 35% Advertising Hit

by richard0505

Jet Dips in Ad Revenue; People en Español Rises 21%

USA Today Bars “Illegal Immigrant” Except in Direct Quotes

NABJ President Denies Tie Between Martin Honor, CNN Exit

Hoy Wins IRE Award for Showing Community Fear of Police
 
Blacks Prefer “Scandal” to NCAA; Hispanics Pick “The Voice”

Asian Americans More Satisfied Than Other Groups

How Many Ways Can a Song Be Ridiculed?

James Lewis, Publisher of Birmingham Times, Dies

Short Takes

Black Enterprise is shifting its emphasis to its online editions.

Jet Dips in Ad Revenue; People en Español Rises 21%

Black Enterprise magazine sustained a 35.4 percent decline in advertising dollars in the first quarter of 2013 and a 34 percent hit in advertising pages, according to figures released this week by the Publishers Information Bureau.

Jet magazine dropped 31.7 percent in advertising dollars compared with the same period a year before, the bureau said, although Jet says the figure should be 13.52%. The bureau said Jet also lost 39.5 pages. For years a weekly, Jet reduced its frequency to once every three weeks effective Jan. 1. It underwent a redesign in 2010 and plans another, officials say. 

Jet ad sales picked up in February.

People en Español rose by 20.8 percent in ad dollars and 14 percent in ad pages.

Black Enterprise announced last month it was cutting its print editions from 12 to 10 issues a year as it shifts to an emphasis on its online editions.

Alfred A. Edmond Jr., senior vice president/multimedia editor-at-large, did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. But he told Journal-isms last month, “All things being equal, we intend to deliver content across 10 print issues roughly equivalent to what we’ve delivered in 12 issues each year. The savings on printing and mailing two fewer issues each year is being shifted to our other media platforms, particularly digital, which has taken over from the print platform as a source of breaking news and delivers the responsiveness and interactivity our audience expects. Those expectations can hardly be met by printed newspapers, much less by monthly or even weekly magazines.”

Edmond was paraphrasing a letter to subscribers from Earl G. Graves Jr., president and CEO, in the January/February edition. The letter was repeated in the March edition, now on newsstands.

Overall, “Consumer magazines’ advertising woes continued in the first quarter of 2013, with ad pages slipping 4.8 percent versus the year-ago period on declines in nine out of the 12 top categories, according to numbers released today by MPA—The Association of Magazine Media,” Emma Bazilian reported Monday for Adweek.

“Most ad categories were down as publishers have grappled with the shift to digital media, including Drugs & Remedies (down 6.7 percent), Apparel & Accessories (down 5.5 percent) and Media & Advertising (off 14.4 percent). Measured by ad revenue, the industry looked a little healthier, with ad revenue edging up 0.5 percent, the first increase in about two years. . . .”

Desiree Rogers, CEO of the Johnson Publishing Co., publishers of Ebony and Jet, told Journal-isms by telephone that Jet published one less issue in the 2013 measuring period than it did in 2012’s, accounting for a loss of 15 to 20 ads. In addition, the January 2013 issues were “extremely soft” in advertising. But, she said, the advertising picked up in February and March.

“The revenues from a magazine as you know are made up of subscriptions, ad revenue and newsstand. Jet is trending positive over last year in newsstand and subs. Ad sales are coming back on track. January was low,” she added by email. 

She would not say what percentage of the revenue picture ad sales represented.

Rogers also noted that Jet recently launched a digital version on Kindle and Nook tablets, adding to digital consumer sales, though not advertising sales.

Stephen Gregory Barr, Johnson Publishing senior vice president and group publisher, maintained Thursday that the Publishers Information Bureau figures do not tell the whole story.

“PIB didn’t track through the 4/8 issue of JET, per PIB, JET is at 86.48 pages — this issue is on newsstand in the 1st Quarter (on sale was 3/25),” Barr said by email.

“Y-T-D 2012 at the same time we were at 100.00 — so the magazine is only off 13.52%, not the quoted 39.5%

“Keep in mind, JET’s newsstand [sales were] one of the few highlights in 2012 with a significant increase in growth (+5%). . . .

“The print category overall is challenged, not only to JPC, but the entire magazine industry.

“However, we are seeing momentum on both brands.”

Among other magazines targeting people of color, Ebony was up 6.1 percent in advertising dollars and down 2.4 percent in advertising pages; Essence was down 19 percent in advertising dollars and 23.9 percent in ad pages; Latina was up 6.8 percent in advertising dollars and 5.4 percent in ad pages; Ser Padres was down 1.5 percent in ad dollars and 5.6 percent in ad pages; and Siempre Mujer was up 7.2 percent in ad dollars and 4.0 percent in ad pages.

Thousands of advocates of immigration reform lobbied Congress on Wednesday and r

USA Today Bars “Illegal Immigrant” Except in Direct Quotes

“You probably have heard that the Associated Press recently changed its style on the term illegal immigrant. Starting tonight, USA TODAY is also changing its style,” William Coon, operations editor on the copy desk, wrote Wednesday in a memo to his USA Today colleagues. “It is not exactly the same as AP’s, but the upshot is that we will no longer use the term illegal immigrant outside of direct quotes. Here’s the new style:

“illegal immigration

“The term illegal immigration is acceptable, but do not label people as illegal immigrants, except in direct quotes. Undocumented immigrant, undocumented worker and unauthorized immigrant are acceptable terms — depending on accuracy, clarity and context — for foreign nationals who are in the country illegally. An alternative is to use a phrase such as ‘people who entered the U.S. illegally’ or ‘living in the country without legal permission.’

“Avoid using the word alien to refer to immigrants, except in quoted matter or official government designations. Do not use illegal or illegals as a noun. It is considered pejorative by most immigrants. Migrant can be used instead of immigrant in a tight space.”

NABJ President Denies Tie Between Martin Honor, CNN Exit

The National Association of Black Journalists’ choice of Roland Martin as its Journalist of the Year for 2013 had nothing to do with CNN’s refusal to renew Martin’s contract, NABJ President Gregory H. Lee Jr. said on Tuesday.

Roland Martin,left, and Ali Velshi

The NABJ board voted Martin “Journalist of the Year” in a March 20 conference call the day after Martin disclosed his contract was not being renewed and weeks of public discussion about whether it would be. The disclosure fanned further concern about CNN’s commitment to journalists of color under new President Jeff Zucker.

Lee told an audience on NABJ’s Facebook page, “CNN had nothing to do with this. In fact, the New York Post called me and asked if this was in response to CNN. I said that NABJ decides its awards at the same time every year. He responded: ‘Oh, I guess I don’t have a story.’ No, you don’t.”

Lee was reacting to a posting by Vanessa Williams, a Washington Post editor and former NABJ president who nominated Martin, an NABJ stalwart and former board member, for the honor.

“In fact, Roland’s association with CNN had no bearing on my thinking; it was his role as managing editor of Washington Watch that I found worthy of nomination,” Williams wrote, referring to Martin’s Sunday morning show on TV One. “I’m partial to political journalism, so for me one of the biggest stories last year was the presidential race. The coverage of that story by mainstream news organizations involved almost no diversity — very little visibility with regard to journalists of color and very little attention to voters of color and issues important to them. . . .”

By contrast, on “Washington Watch,” “you saw black journalists, commentators, political scientists, campaign officials, cabinet members, pollsters, activists. Washington Watch also had white guests, too. And they talked about those issues that the others ignored, including, and especially, voter suppression.”

Williams, in turn, was reacting to a column by Sam Fulwood III of the Center for American Progress, who wrote about online combat between Martin and a detractor, Michael K. Fauntroy, an associate professor of public policy at George Mason University, over CNN’s decision to remove Martin from its lineup.

Fulwood wrote, “The National Association of Black Journalists reacted to the CNN decision by naming Martin its 2013 Journalist of the Year,” then went on to make a larger point, “Why can’t black folks disagree in public and keep it civil?”

Lee told Journal-isms that Martin was not the only nominee for Journalist of the Year, “but I am not releasing those names because they were not told they were nominated and to find out in a story would not [be] appropriate.”

Meanwhile, Paul Farhi of the Washington Post produced a profile of CNN under Zucker that included this line: “He has hired, fired and reshuffled anchors and hosts (out: Soledad O’Brien, Ali Velshi), added new producers and pared CNN’s long list of talking heads . . . “

Velshi, CNN’s former chief business correspondent and anchor of ‘Your Money’ and CNN International’s ‘World Business Today,’ has joined the new Al Jazeera America to develop and host a daily primetime business program.

Velshi told Journal-isms that he was not fired from CNN. “His info is completely wrong,” Velshi messaged, referring to Farhi. In fact, Velshi said by telephone, “I had an offer. We were in long, involved negotiations” when Al Jazeera contacted him about working at the new network. “I didn’t think it was a likely possibility” at first, Velshi said, “but they really are committed to being a good news organization.”

Farhi’s piece did not address the much-discussed diversity issues under Zucker, but he disclosed that “in recent years, CNN’s inability to attract viewers consistently has begun to make a noticeable dent. The network’s advertising revenue fell 10 percent last year, to an estimated $313.6 million, according to Derek Baine, senior analyst at SNL Kagan, an independent research firm.

“That’s a stunning fall in an industry used to solid annual growth. But it’s even more alarming to CNN’s masters at Time Warner because it came in an election year, typically the most profitable for cable news. . . .”

IRE judges called series "a smart piece of accountability reporting about racial

Hoy Wins IRE Award for Showing Community Fear of Police

“Crunch Time,” a collaboration between Hoy Chicago and CU-CitizenAccess.org of Champaign-Urbana, Ill., was among the winners of the 2012 IRE Awards [PDF] announced Wednesday by Investigative Reporters and Editors.

“This partnership is a smart piece of accountability reporting about racial inequality that takes us inside a community through excellent video interviews and writing takes us inside a community,” the judges said, choosing it in the multiplatform – small category.

“In the stringent enforcement of marijuana use, vehicular noise and other lesser crimes like jaywalking in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., this is a story of living in fear of the police. Though black people comprise only 16 percent of the population, they represent 40 percent of those arrested. The reporters published as they went, presenting a collaborative effort online and a 16-page bilingual supplement distributed in both the Chicago and Champaign-Urbana areas. ‘Crunch Time’ sticks with you.”

HOY contributors were Jeffrey Kelly Lowenstein, Samuel Vega, Roger Morales and Fernando Diaz. CU-CitizenAccess.org contributors were Pamela Dempsey and Brant Houston.

The IRE Medal, the organization’s highest honor for investigative reporting, went to CNN Atlanta and to Sverige Radio, Stockholm. CNN won for “Benghazi: US Consulate Attack.” Journalists Arwa Damon and Sarmad Qaseera and contributors Jill Dougherty, Elise Labott, Tim Lister, Richard T. Griffiths, Tony Maddox, Charlie Moore, Richard Davis and David Vigilante were cited.

Sverige Radio was awarded for “Project Simoom,” in which “Swedish Radio News reporters uncovered one of the most secretive projects in Sweden: the illegal financing and construction of an advanced weapons factory in the Saudi Arabian desert in violation of the country’s strict human rights criteria.”

The University of Connecticut Huskies celebrate their eighth NCAA championship i

Blacks Prefer “Scandal” to NCAA; Hispanics Pick “The Voice”

Although the early ratings results showed this year’s Final Four to be the most watched in eight years, Nielsen ratings for last week showed ABC’s “Scandal” series drawing bigger crowds among African Americans, and “The Voice” and several other shows outpacing basketball among Hispanics tuning into English-language programs.

For the week of April 1-7, the Nielsen ratings for English-language shows among Hispanics were: 1. “The Voice” (Monday); 2. “The Voice” (Tuesday); 3. “The Big Bang Theory”; 4. “Modern Family”; 5. “American Idol” (Wednesday); 5. “Two and a Half Men” (tie); 7. “Dancing With the Stars”; 7. “Person of Interest”; 9. American Idol (Thursday); 9. “Dancing With the Stars Results”; 11. “Castle” 11. “CBS NCAA Basketball Championships” (Saturday); 11. “How to Live With Your Parents.”

Among African Americans, the top five shows for the week were: 1. “Scandal”; 2. “CBS NCAA Basketball Championships” (Saturday); 3. “CBS NCAA Basketball Championships” (Saturday — bridge to the game); 4. “American Idol” (Wednesday); 5. “American Idol” (Thursday).

Asian Americans More Satisfied Than Other Groups

“Asian Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States. They are more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place more value than other Americans do on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success, according to a comprehensive new nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center,” the center reported last week, updating its 2012 survey.

The update “provides data on 14 smaller Asian origin groups with population counts below 500,000 in the 2010 Census, along with detailed data on the economic and demographic characteristics of adults in nine of these groups,” the center said.

It also said, “Compared with the nation’s two largest minority groups — Hispanics and blacks — Asian Americans appear to be less inclined to view discrimination against their group as a major problem. Just 13% of Asian Americans say it is, while about half (48%) say it is a minor problem, and a third (35%) say it is not a problem.

“About six-in-ten say that being Asian American makes no difference when it comes to getting a job or gaining admission to college. Of those who do say it makes a difference, a slightly higher share say that members of their group are helped rather than hurt by their race. Those with less education are more prone than those with more education to say that being an Asian American is an advantage. . . . “

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