Wednesday, June 11, 2003

EBONY MAGAZINE

What a difference a month makes? Last month I was speaking with the aforementioned friend of mine who the sun rises and sets on and she and I were discussing the downward spiral of the once proud Ebony Magazine.

Yesterday while at Publix in East Lake, I noticed the newest edition, and as I flipped through the pages, the editors have promised that this is indeed 'The New Face of Ebony.' Thank goodness. Perhaps they'll get back to what made them great; provactive stories, beautiful pictures, meaningful submissions, etc.

This edition opened up with Ebony On the Scene. This piece is like so many others now that include pics of stars at premieres and events. We've seen it from other mags, but never Ebony. Either way, this month's inclusion of the Super Single Sisters is an added bonus. Super Single Sister standouts (that's a mouthful) are: Meagan Good (of course), Danielle Slaton (my first love was soccer), Teri Woods (she's a writer) and Melissa D. Johnson (Ipso Facto).

The overall layout is different, very reminiscent of Essence, and even the ads look better. There's even an ad for Sex in the City's June 22nd premiere! There's a huge Health & Fitness section with topics ranging from Fitness to Vegan lifestyles to golfing, (which I'm doing today). Also, Ebony saluted outstanding women in marketing and communications, and provided a splashy spread to commemorate the fact, and while the pictures are great, we kinda wanna know why these women are so great at what it is they do.

Then they slid back to the old crazy ways...Who cares what cities are the best to "Say 'I Do' In"? I don't know, but obviously, Ebony thinks its readers do. I was shocked to find that Dallas nor Atlanta were on the list. Fortunately for all involved, they mention that the list of cities, including Roanake, VA, Charlotte, San Diego and Birmingham was done 'un'scientifically. A real surprise. The cover story on Russell and Kimoro Simmons was nice, but alas short and uninformative.

Despite the beginning of innovations for the magazine, the same type of stories still fill the pages. The single fathers/mothers dating stories, the advice stories, etc. And it's the same type of pictures as well; models who illustrate what the writing in the story should be telling us. I think they went with the, 'the bigger the picture, the bigger the story' train of thought. I can dig it man, but you gotta have some substance.

Bottom line...nice try Ebony, but Miles to Go...

I'm Joe and this is how I see it.

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