Media

Johnson Publishing Co. plans to address Jet magazine’s competitive disadvantage with Internet publications by adding opinions and perspective pieces to the print magazine, Johnson CEO Desiree Rogers told Journal-isms on Wednesday. “You can curate and have opinions on what happened over the week,” she said. Jet can also offer “more of what you’ve loved all…

Hundreds Complain About Racial Remarks on BBC “The BBC has received nearly 700 complaints about the historian and broadcaster David Starkey’s claim that ‘whites have become black’ during a discussion about last week’s riots on Newsnight,” Lisa O’Carroll reported Monday for Britain’s Guardian newspaper. “Of those contacting the BBC, 696 were protesting about Starkey’s comments,…

Ebony and Jet magazines reversed circulation declines in the first half of 2011, according to new figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, on the heels of a redesign of Ebony and the outsourcing of circulation duties at Ebony and Jet. Hispanic-interest titles also dominated the fastest-growing magazines, Lucia Moses reported for Adweek. “Poder Hispanic,…

Activist Says Black Journalists Would Be Part of His Show The Rev. Al Sharpton said Tuesday that if his show on MSNBC is made permanent, black journalists will be a part of it. In a telephone call to Journal-isms, Sharpton said he understood that only a few had complained that journalists, not Sharpton, should have…

At a passionate and emotional business meeting that stretched for nearly three hours, members of the National Association of Black Journalists voted Friday to “seek reunification with Unity: Journalists of Color as soon as is feasible,” but “based on conditions involving the financial and governance structure of Unity that do not conflict with the best…

AOL is relaunching its Black Voices site this week with Christina Norman, the ousted CEO of Oprah Winfrey’s struggling OWN cable channel as executive editor, David Kaplan reported Monday for paidContent.org. White Huffington Post writers will produce content for Black Voices in an effort to “cross-pollinate the sites,” Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of Huffington…

Company Endorses Candidate but Won’t Support Conference The New York Times Co. is not attending the National Association of Black Journalists convention next year. “We are supporting Unity,” Desiree Dancy, vice president, diversity and inclusion, told Journal-isms on Friday. “We’re disappointed in the fact that NABJ pulled out of Unity and yet this is a…

Activist Was Early Backer of Acquisition of NBC “Eight months after Al Sharpton signed a pivotal agreement that helped Comcast and NBC secure Federal Communications Commission approval for their $30 billion merger, MSNBC appears poised to reward him with a prime-time news show,” Wayne Barrett, who long covered Sharpton for the Village Voice, wrote Wednesday…

Alternative Press Concedes Its Readers Are “So White” If the sight of the Tyronne Foster & The Arc Singers gospel choir performing in a bar did not signal that this was not your ordinary journalism convention, then maybe the burlesque dancers, not to be called strippers, the magic act and the swinging New Orleans brass…

Freelance journalist Jeff Winbush wants it known that he is not hatin’ on the Rev. Al Sharpton. Winbush is a blogger in Columbus, Ohio, a former editor of the black newspaper the Columbus Post and a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. More to the point, he was the source of a quote…