Black-owned media losing influence

For the black community in Chicago and elsewhere, Johnson Publishing Co. represented a certain kind of hope.

The company’s magazines, most notably Ebony and Jet, gained prominence during the struggle for civil rights — Jet published graphic photos of the murdered black teenager Emmett Till that helped intensify the movement — and made it their mission to chronicle African-American life.

So when Johnson Publishing, which is based in Chicago, announced a little more than two weeks ago that it had sold Ebony and Jet to a private equity firm in Texas, there was a sense of loss.

“It was a very heartbreaking day,” said Melody Spann-Cooper, chairwoman of Midway Broadcasting Corp., which owns a Chicago radio station, WVON, aimed at a black audience. “Ebony gave to African-Americans what Life didn’t.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2016/07/03/Black-owned-media-losing-influence/stories/201607030207