Comments on: Jet Magazine Crafts Web Strategy

By: yvonne

yvonne — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:37:48 +0000

Linda Johnson Rice has changed a lot about the magazine by attempting to attract a younger audience. I'd hate to see her sell the magazine and become just like Essence and become a part of the pop culture mass marketing and consumer group.

By: yvonne

yvonne — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:33:40 +0000

Not really because I tried to buy a subscription from them and they don't even have that capability. Arise is nice but when I look at the magazine, nothing is unique about it. I feel that I'm reading any other UK or American magazine because the models have nothing remotely different about them other than their names.

By: yvonne

yvonne — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:37:48 +0000

By: yvonne

yvonne — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:33:40 +0000

By: ananda

ananda — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:11:15 +0000

thanks for sharing the information.

By: facebook-25506863

facebook-25506863 — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:40:34 +0000

I dont think it is we as blacks "always" selling off our business. I think its quite the opposite. The culture normally goes the way ebony and jet is headed. Never evolving to the times and letting their main audience die off and no one to replace them. Two options

1. Sell while its worth something. Use the resources you already have and come up with a strategic plan to recapture the $45-$100k a year urban audience. (hopefully online)

2. Hail Mary an attempt to stay relevant by jumping on the online bandwagon five years (at a minimum) too late.

Building loyal and consistent visitors is very hard. They should learn as much as possible about the repeat visitors they have. They average 110k visitors per month. If out of those only 30% are active members to the site and not just google traffic. They have the possibility to gain a larger ROI for advertising as well as help develop up and coming blog sites within their niche category.

All in all the best investment for them is to try to find the "next big player" within their niche. Monetize and learn. The one thing they have is a house hold name. If they market right they can recapture some of those lost readers who have left them for the net years ago.

By: uglyblackjohn

uglyblackjohn — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:48:48 +0000

Both are outdated.
Arise magazine is the new international model that should be followed.

By: BlackAdTalk - Webmaster Forum

BlackAdTalk - Webmaster Forum — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:45:24 +0000

If I was at the helm of that kind of family owned business and the original founders had passed…I wouldve pulled a Bob Johnson years ago and sold that puppy. It has to be worth about 500m to a 1 billion to any major media company.

My 3c
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I have to disagree… We as blacks always selling off our businesses…
It's about Generational black wealth…

You can't take that money to the grave…

By: thewayiseeit

thewayiseeit — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:56:13 +0000

The one thing that Ebony/Jet has working for them is their strength in being able to generate original content in connection with what the bulk of what/who black people want to read about. That is their magic stone of success to really make things pop off because there are no black bloggers and content generators who can get the attention of a black A lister to basically do anything they want to do quite like the old regime magazines can. It's an aspirational brand for nearly every African American in Hollywood, business, and beyond to be a part of...that is 'hulk' strong.

The hard part is making such a radical shift in an old business model which is probbaly the root of why they havent been more aggressive in regards to the internet until now.

If I was at the helm of that kind of family owned business and the original founders had passed...I wouldve pulled a Bob Johnson years ago and sold that puppy. It has to be worth about 500m to a 1 billion to any major media company.

My 3c