WEBVTT 1 00:00:50.980 --> 00:00:52.260 Good evening. 2 00:00:53.080 --> 00:00:57.840 This is Michael Kubenji with another personal report from the United States. 3 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:04.320 Tonight I'd like to share with you my interest in one of America's most successful businesses, 4 00:01:05.140 --> 00:01:15.500 the Johnson Publishing Company, publishers of Ebony Magazine and a long-time favorite on the newsstand here in the United States as well as in our own country, Nigeria. 5 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:24.440 I began my investigation of this popular magazine in its publisher's Washington office. 6 00:01:25.520 --> 00:01:32.320 The head of this office, Mr. Simeon Buka, has had a long and successful career in newspapers and magazines. 7 00:01:33.140 --> 00:01:41.960 Mr. Buka was graduated from college in Virginia and was then selected from a handful of men for a special scholarship to study journalism at Harvard University. 8 00:01:42.740 --> 00:01:49.720 After graduation, Mr. Buka became a reporter for the Washington Post, an important daily newspaper in the United States Capitol. 9 00:01:50.520 --> 00:01:54.080 Nearly 10 years ago, he joined the Johnson Publishing Company. 10 00:01:54.720 --> 00:02:03.220 Altogether, the company publishes four magazines of special interest to Negroes, Tan, Negro Digest, and Jet, in addition to Ebony. 11 00:02:09.720 --> 00:02:18.280 The principal responsibility of Mr. Buka and his staff in the Washington office is to report on developments that occur in the United States Capitol. 12 00:02:24.160 --> 00:02:28.900 One of Mr. Buka's regular assignments is attending President Kennedy's press conferences. 13 00:02:28.900 --> 00:02:39.060 The President's press conference is important in the American system of government because it makes certain that the people can get full information about government policies. 14 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:44.620 Here, Mr. Buka can question the President about matters of special interest to the American Negro. 15 00:02:45.460 --> 00:02:50.400 Here, too, reporters from all over the world are free to question the President of the United States. 16 00:02:53.620 --> 00:03:06.500 I found Mr. Buka's work very interesting, and he suggested that to gather the complete story of Ebony magazine, I should go to Chicago, where the home office is located, and talk with Mr. Johnson, Ebony's publisher. 17 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:10.620 Mr. Buka kindly offered to tell Chicago to expect my visit. 18 00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:24.660 I was glad for the opportunity to visit another large American city. 19 00:03:25.160 --> 00:03:29.240 Chicago is an American Indian world. Some say it means mighty. 20 00:03:29.860 --> 00:03:38.440 It is the world's largest livestock and grain market, and it's America's second largest city, home to three and a half million people of all races and religions. 21 00:03:44.060 --> 00:03:49.300 I was looking forward to meeting the man who had started this successful publishing company. 22 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:59.360 His story turned out to be like that of so many other successful American businessmen, the story of a poor boy in a country of opportunity. 23 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:05.160 Hard work and determination to make something of his life are the ingredients of his achievement. 24 00:04:06.760 --> 00:04:16.560 His first magazine, Negro Digest, consisted of articles on the achievements of the Negro in various fields and was the first successful Negro magazine in the United States. 25 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:23.480 After that, he told me he wanted to start a magazine that would show the daily life of the Negro in America, 26 00:04:23.940 --> 00:04:32.380 how he lives and works, how he spends his leisure time, how, in fact, the Negro's life is much the same as that of any other American. 27 00:04:33.100 --> 00:04:35.440 So Ebony was born in 1945. 28 00:04:38.500 --> 00:04:43.440 Mr. Johnson offered to show me around so that I could see for myself how his magazine is published. 29 00:04:48.420 --> 00:04:53.820 Our first stop was to meet Ms. Arabelle Thompson, one of Ebony's two managing editors. 30 00:04:54.580 --> 00:04:59.740 Ms. Thompson had just finished making a final selection of the stories that would be used in the next issue. 31 00:05:01.880 --> 00:05:06.740 I was pleased to see that one of them would be a feature on marketing in Nigeria. 32 00:05:08.780 --> 00:05:12.100 Even before I met her, I thought that her name was familiar. 33 00:05:12.660 --> 00:05:13.900 Then I discovered why. 34 00:05:13.900 --> 00:05:17.940 I had read her book about Africa, Land of My Fathers. 35 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:28.160 I wanted to talk to Ms. Thompson at greater length about her many visits to Africa, and she suggested that we meet later for luncheon. 36 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:42.180 After the final selection of stories had been made, Mr. Herbert Nipson, who is the other managing editor, assigned writers and photographers to cover these stories. 37 00:05:43.900 --> 00:05:48.960 Nearly all of them are university graduates, and they are a very talented group, 38 00:05:49.400 --> 00:05:54.460 typical of the Negro journalists who are working on magazines and newspapers throughout the United States. 39 00:05:57.640 --> 00:06:01.080 This large room, where the various editors write their stories, 40 00:06:01.460 --> 00:06:05.920 has been the training ground for many Negro writers who got their start on the Ebony staff. 41 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:12.620 Among Ebony's writers is Mr. Neroon Bennett. 42 00:06:12.620 --> 00:06:18.940 His first book, Before the May Flowers, traces the history of the American Negro back to Africa. 43 00:06:20.280 --> 00:06:23.080 He is currently writing the biography of Martin Luther King. 44 00:06:25.440 --> 00:06:31.000 Right now, Mr. Nipson is assigning a writer-photographer team to cover a very interesting story. 45 00:06:31.700 --> 00:06:37.920 The story had its origin when a party boat sank and many people were drowned because they could not swim. 46 00:06:38.580 --> 00:06:45.480 Hearing of this tragedy, the swimming instructor perfected a method of teaching people to swim in just 20 minutes. 47 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:51.640 His office or place of business is a swimming pool in a Chicago hotel. 48 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:07.080 Ebony's writer and photographer are on hand to get the pictures and the facts needed to create a good magazine article. 49 00:07:14.520 --> 00:07:19.620 While this story is being covered elsewhere in the city and throughout the country, 50 00:07:20.040 --> 00:07:25.100 other writer-photographer teams are covering stories that will appear in future issues of Ebony. 51 00:07:29.280 --> 00:07:32.480 Not all of the picture stories are taken on location. 52 00:07:33.200 --> 00:07:37.500 Some are photographed in Ebony's own studios, especially the fashion features. 53 00:07:39.020 --> 00:07:44.720 Incidentally, this pretty model works right in the Ebony office, in the circulation department. 54 00:07:54.280 --> 00:08:00.400 Mr. Johnson wanted to make sure that I did not miss anything, and our next stop was at the art department. 55 00:08:01.020 --> 00:08:04.580 He explained how the art department and a tutorial department work together 56 00:08:04.580 --> 00:08:08.400 in making sure that both words and pictures tell the complete story. 57 00:08:09.300 --> 00:08:13.740 Ebony takes great pride in their covers, and each month they spend a great deal of time 58 00:08:13.740 --> 00:08:18.340 not only in selecting the cover subject, but also in creating a cover design 59 00:08:18.340 --> 00:08:22.300 that will be attractive on the newsstands and in the homes of the subscribers. 60 00:08:23.160 --> 00:08:26.000 The art staff has both layout men and illustrators. 61 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:31.240 For although Ebony is a picture magazine, there are times when drawings tell a better story. 62 00:08:32.680 --> 00:08:38.540 This one of President Kennedy will illustrate one of Mr. Boka's reports from the Washington Bureau. 63 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:50.060 It was time for my luncheon with Ms. Thompson. 64 00:08:54.980 --> 00:08:58.820 She lives in an apartment development called Prairie Shores. 65 00:08:58.820 --> 00:09:05.120 It is a handsome modern development which is home to Negroes and whites alike. 66 00:09:11.240 --> 00:09:15.680 After making me comfortable, Ms. Thompson told me something of her own story. 67 00:09:16.340 --> 00:09:21.520 She was born in Iowa, a state in the American Midwest, which is famous for its maize crops. 68 00:09:22.280 --> 00:09:26.580 She graduated from the University of Iowa, where as Mr. Johnson had told me, 69 00:09:26.580 --> 00:09:29.460 she established five national records in sports. 70 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:36.620 All her life, she has had a personal interest in Africa, and she has visited our country several times. 71 00:09:40.400 --> 00:09:47.140 She laughingly told me that, like all tourists, she could not resist buying some of the things she saw in our shops. 72 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:59.720 But she realized that these are not examples of Nigeria's great works of art. 73 00:10:00.460 --> 00:10:04.500 She hopes that one day Ebony will publish stories about this art, 74 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:08.500 perhaps soon after the magazine opens a branch office in Africa, 75 00:10:08.980 --> 00:10:11.500 which it is planning to do in the very near future. 76 00:10:12.160 --> 00:10:14.900 Ms. Thompson told me how much this delighted her, 77 00:10:15.180 --> 00:10:17.120 for she has a deep and personal feeling of her own. 78 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:17.120 79 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:19.800 to be able to share this experience of closeness for our new African states. 80 00:10:24.800 --> 00:10:27.940 After lunch, I have the privilege of meeting Mr. Jeffries, 81 00:10:28.380 --> 00:10:30.340 vice president in charge of advertising, 82 00:10:31.740 --> 00:10:35.080 and Mr. Fentris, who is in charge of the promotion department. 83 00:10:35.760 --> 00:10:39.460 It is their job to sell the magazine and its advertising pages. 84 00:10:39.460 --> 00:10:43.860 I learned that there are 20 million Negro buyers in the United States. 85 00:10:48.560 --> 00:10:51.960 Mr. Jeffries explained the importance of this Negro purchasing power 86 00:10:51.960 --> 00:10:57.520 and why advertisers spend millions of dollars to make their products known to Ebony's readers. 87 00:11:02.640 --> 00:11:06.360 One of Ebony's most popular features is called Date with a Dish. 88 00:11:06.360 --> 00:11:11.880 This feature is planned and prepared by Mrs. Robinson in Ebony's own test kitchen. 89 00:11:13.140 --> 00:11:17.260 Each month, the magazine shows its readers how to prepare the favorite dish 90 00:11:17.260 --> 00:11:19.840 of a famous personality who likes to cook. 91 00:11:37.160 --> 00:11:40.920 Mr. Johnson is proud of his magazine's reputation for accuracy 92 00:11:40.920 --> 00:11:44.660 and showed me the reference library where his staff of editors 93 00:11:44.660 --> 00:11:48.020 perform the painstaking work of researching each story 94 00:11:48.020 --> 00:11:50.960 and carefully checking the facts appearing in them. 95 00:11:52.740 --> 00:11:56.100 Ebony has a circulation of 850,000, 96 00:11:56.260 --> 00:11:59.400 of which approximately 600,000 are subscribers. 97 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:03.000 The subscription department has the job of keeping track 98 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:05.560 of the correct address of each of these subscribers. 99 00:12:06.360 --> 00:12:10.940 To help with this task, the Johnson Publishing Company has purchased the latest equipment. 100 00:12:11.740 --> 00:12:14.000 Each subscriber's name goes on a punch card 101 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:18.160 and the cards are then processed at great speed by automated machines. 102 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:21.120 The cards then control the addressing machines 103 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:23.720 which print the address labels for each subscriber. 104 00:12:33.580 --> 00:12:39.480 Finally, all of the many elements of an issue of the magazine come together in a giant press room. 105 00:12:40.120 --> 00:12:42.820 The stories which the writers and photographers have prepared, 106 00:12:43.400 --> 00:12:48.620 the artwork, the advertising, all of them must pass through the high-speed presses. 107 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:51.660 Here 15,000 copies are printed every hour. 108 00:12:52.880 --> 00:12:53.280 The first page of the magazine is filled with the information 109 00:12:53.280 --> 00:12:53.460 of the magazine's content and the content of the magazine's content. 110 00:13:01.940 --> 00:13:05.760 The story of Mr. Johnson and the Johnson Publishing Company 111 00:13:05.760 --> 00:13:08.380 especially interested me for several reasons. 112 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:12.000 One of course is Mr. Johnson's personal success. 113 00:13:12.880 --> 00:13:15.380 I always liked meeting successful people. 114 00:13:15.800 --> 00:13:17.000 But there was something else. 115 00:13:17.640 --> 00:13:21.820 By his efforts, Mr. Johnson is not only providing new opportunities 116 00:13:21.820 --> 00:13:23.440 for an increasing number of Americans, 117 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:23.440 118 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:28.700 he is also doing his part to demonstrate the capacity of the Negro community 119 00:13:28.700 --> 00:13:34.480 to make a contribution to the education and culture of all the people of the United States. 120 00:13:39.820 --> 00:13:43.680 I was amazed at the speed and ingenuity of this giant machine. 121 00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:59.180 In another area, an equally amazing machine cuts the printed paper into separate pages, 122 00:13:59.740 --> 00:14:04.420 assembles them, and stitches them together to become completed copies of the magazine. 123 00:14:14.360 --> 00:14:20.720 You may be sure my thanks were heartfelt when at last the time arrived for me to say goodbye. 124 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:24.460 Here's the final product. 125 00:14:29.920 --> 00:14:31.780 Thank you very much, Mr. Johnson. 126 00:14:31.820 --> 00:14:32.260 Thank you. 127 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:36.120 Seeing how an issue of Ebony is published is very fascinating. 128 00:14:36.900 --> 00:14:39.640 And please thank the members of your staff for their cooperation. 129 00:14:40.380 --> 00:14:41.940 I am most grateful to you. 130 00:14:43.760 --> 00:14:48.600 I have enjoyed this trip to Chicago and the look at the publishing business. 131 00:14:48.600 --> 00:14:55.980 I hope you have also enjoyed it, and will find Ebony and other magazines more interesting after this trip. 132 00:14:56.820 --> 00:15:00.600 This is Michael Kubenji, sending regards from the United States. 133 00:15:18.600 --> 00:15:19.180 Thank you.