Heir and parent: Linda Johnson Rice, one of the country's youngest publishing executives, heads one of the nation's oldest African-American magazine companies. Her take on publishing and management is truly unique - Interview

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, July 1, 1994 by Lambeth Hochwald

Q: What has been the biggest change in Ebony since its launch in 1945?

A: I think the changes have been subtle. The basic premise of Ebony - which has been very succesful for the past 50 years - has not changed content-wise. Ebony highlights achievement and success, but not necessarily financial success. Six years ago, we downsized and updated the graphics and some of the typefaces and layouts to give it a more modern look. From my perspective, that was long overdue. We also put all three magazines on desktop publishing.

Q: Do you ever encounter resistance from potential advertisers?

A: Not at all. If they want to go after the black market in a very serious way, they know that the most direct way is through Ebony. The only time you get resistance is when the advertisers don't have a budget. It's not just Ebony. They may not have a budget for People, Time, Newsweek or Essence.

Q: How do you feel about linking up for Black History Month with other African-American titles?

A: I think there's competition among all magazines on the newsstand - Esquire, GQ and Life - they're putting black people on their covers, too. The Black History Month promotion [every February] sets us apart. It's a great point of sale.

Q: What about going into new media?

A: We have a terrific person heading up our library who has been talking to me about CD-ROM. I think that's probably our next step. We're looking into cataloging all of our photographs on CD-ROM. That will be a big undertaking.

Q: Is there one particular celebrity who sells well on Ebony's covers?

A: It's not one particular celebrity, it's how hot that celebrity is when the magazine comes out. It could be Denzel Washington, it could be Michael Jackson - whether you like him or not, [he] always sells. If they're popular, if they're hot, the magazine is going to move.

Q: Have titles like Vibe and The Source impacted on Ebony's or Jet's mission?

A: I think somebody's got to be cutting-edge. It just depends how you want to market your magazines and how big you want them to be. We look upon competition as what it is. It's there, you pay attention to it, but you don't live by it. You have to go on and grind it out day to day and do the best you can with your magazine every single day.

Q: Will magazines always be Johnson's core franchise?

A: Everything has been a power base off of our magazines.

Q: Would you ever launch another kids' magazine, given that Ebony Jr. lost millions before it folded in the seventies?

A: I'm not sure if the climate is right to start it new magazine, but I still have a kids' magazine in the back of my mind because there just aren't a lot of magazines for African-American children. What happened with Ebony.Jr. was that we didn't have the greatest distribution. You need to put a kids' magazine in doctors' offices and into schools - selling on the newsstand isn't the best way to go. I would definitely take a different tack from what we did before.

Q: How does it feel to be one of the youngest presidents and COOs in publishing and a role model for African-American women?

A: It feels great. There's a responsibility, of course, to your readers to make sure you put out a first-rate product. There's a responsibility to our employees, too. You hope that every decision you make and every venture you go into will be profitable. As far as being a role model, I try to be a role model to myself - to make the best decisions I can make and be as fair as I can to people. When you do that, you automatically become a role model for others.

Q: What would happen if a huge publishing company called and offered you a high-level position there. Would you ever leave Johnson?

A: No. This is more than just a business. This is my life, this is my family. And I don't mean that just because my parents started it. The employees are people I genuinely have a great deal of affection for. Why would I leave? Where else could I go that would be better and more fulfilling than what I'm doing right now? I can't imagine that. I'm extremely fortunate. I was adopted when I was three-and-a-half years old. It was the luck of the draw. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about that.

Q: Could you ever see your six-year-old daughter following in your footsteps at the company?

A: I would love it, but that's up to her. My parents never once told me they wanted me to work in this business and I don't plan on saying that to her. Whatever her personality wants and desires are, I hope I can channel them in this direction. But if I don't, she's still my baby and I'm still her mom.

Q: How do you feel about there being only minimal minority representation at most of the major magazines?

A: Obviously, I wish there were more - there's no two ways about that. I wish more blacks would go into the magazine-publishing field. I have a hard time finding great ad salespeople. They don't think about publishing as a field to get into. They think of medicine, law, finance, especially, and comptuter technology. Magazines just don't come to the top of their minds. When they do journalism, nine times out of 10 it's broadcast jounalism because of the bigger bucks and the prestige.