Frank Koza Collection > SERIES II: Collected Films

Personal Report: Johnson Publishing Company

Transcript (Download)

Good evening.

This is Michael Kubenji with another personal report from the United States.

Tonight I'd like to share with you my interest in one of America's most successful businesses, 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.

I began my investigation of this popular magazine in its publisher's Washington office.

The head of this office, Mr.

Simeon Buka, has had a long and successful career in newspapers and magazines.

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.

After graduation, Mr.

Buka became a reporter for the Washington Post, an important daily newspaper in the United States Capitol.

Nearly 10 years ago, he joined the Johnson Publishing Company.

Altogether, the company publishes four magazines of special interest to Negroes, Tan, Negro Digest, and Jet, in addition to Ebony.

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.

One of Mr.

Buka's regular assignments is attending President Kennedy's press conferences.

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.

Here, Mr.

Buka can question the President about matters of special interest to the American Negro.

Here, too, reporters from all over the world are free to question the President of the United States.

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.

Mr.

Buka kindly offered to tell Chicago to expect my visit.

I was glad for the opportunity to visit another large American city.

Chicago is an American Indian world.

Some say it means mighty.

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.

I was looking forward to meeting the man who had started this successful publishing company.

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.

Hard work and determination to make something of his life are the ingredients of his achievement.

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.

After that, he told me he wanted to start a magazine that would show the daily life of the Negro in America, 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.

So Ebony was born in 1945.

Mr.

Johnson offered to show me around so that I could see for myself how his magazine is published.

Our first stop was to meet Ms.

Arabelle Thompson, one of Ebony's two managing editors.

Ms.

Thompson had just finished making a final selection of the stories that would be used in the next issue.

I was pleased to see that one of them would be a feature on marketing in Nigeria.

Even before I met her, I thought that her name was familiar.

Then I discovered why.

I had read her book about Africa, Land of My Fathers.

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.

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.

Nearly all of them are university graduates, and they are a very talented group, typical of the Negro journalists who are working on magazines and newspapers throughout the United States.

This large room, where the various editors write their stories, has been the training ground for many Negro writers who got their start on the Ebony staff.

Among Ebony's writers is Mr.

Neroon Bennett.

His first book, Before the May Flowers, traces the history of the American Negro back to Africa.

He is currently writing the biography of Martin Luther King.

Right now, Mr.

Nipson is assigning a writer -photographer team to cover a very interesting story.

The story had its origin when a party boat sank and many people were drowned because they could not swim.

Hearing of this tragedy, the swimming instructor perfected a method of teaching people to swim in just 20 minutes.

His office or place of business is a swimming pool in a Chicago hotel.

Ebony's writer and photographer are on hand to get the pictures and the facts needed to create a good magazine article.

While this story is being covered elsewhere in the city and throughout the country, other writer -photographer teams are covering stories that will appear in future issues of Ebony.

Not all of the picture stories are taken on location.

Some are photographed in Ebony's own studios, especially the fashion features.

Incidentally, this pretty model works right in the Ebony office, in the circulation department.

Mr.

Johnson wanted to make sure that I did not miss anything, and our next stop was at the art department.

He explained how the art department and a tutorial department work together in making sure that both words and pictures tell the complete story.

Ebony takes great pride in their covers, and each month they spend a great deal of time not only in selecting the cover subject, but also in creating a cover design that will be attractive on the newsstands and in the homes of the subscribers.

The art staff has both layout men and illustrators.

For although Ebony is a picture magazine, there are times when drawings tell a better story.

This one of President Kennedy will illustrate one of Mr.

Boka's reports from the Washington Bureau.

It was time for my luncheon with Ms.

Thompson.

She lives in an apartment development called Prairie Shores.

It is a handsome modern development which is home to Negroes and whites alike.

After making me comfortable, Ms.

Thompson told me something of her own story.

She was born in Iowa, a state in the American Midwest, which is famous for its maize crops.

She graduated from the University of Iowa, where as Mr.

Johnson had told me, she established five national records in sports.

All her life, she has had a personal interest in Africa, and she has visited our country several times.

She laughingly told me that, like all tourists, she could not resist buying some of the things she saw in our shops.

But she realized that these are not examples of Nigeria's great works of art.

She hopes that one day Ebony will publish stories about this art, perhaps soon after the magazine opens a branch office in Africa, which it is planning to do in the very near future.

Ms.

Thompson told me how much this delighted her, for she has a deep and personal feeling of her own.

to be able to share this experience of closeness for our new African states.

After lunch, I have the privilege of meeting Mr.

Jeffries, vice president in charge of advertising, and Mr.

Fentris, who is in charge of the promotion department.

It is their job to sell the magazine and its advertising pages.

I learned that there are 20 million Negro buyers in the United States.

Mr.

Jeffries explained the importance of this Negro purchasing power and why advertisers spend millions of dollars to make their products known to Ebony's readers.

One of Ebony's most popular features is called Date with a Dish.

This feature is planned and prepared by Mrs.

Robinson in Ebony's own test kitchen.

Each month, the magazine shows its readers how to prepare the favorite dish of a famous personality who likes to cook.

Mr.

Johnson is proud of his magazine's reputation for accuracy and showed me the reference library where his staff of editors perform the painstaking work of researching each story and carefully checking the facts appearing in them.

Ebony has a circulation of 850 ,000, of which approximately 600 ,000 are subscribers.

The subscription department has the job of keeping track of the correct address of each of these subscribers.

To help with this task, the Johnson Publishing Company has purchased the latest equipment.

Each subscriber's name goes on a punch card and the cards are then processed at great speed by automated machines.

The cards then control the addressing machines which print the address labels for each subscriber.

Finally, all of the many elements of an issue of the magazine come together in a giant press room.

The stories which the writers and photographers have prepared, the artwork, the advertising, all of them must pass through the high -speed presses.

Here 15 ,000 copies are printed every hour.

The first page of the magazine is filled with the information of the magazine's content and the content of the magazine's content.

The story of Mr.

Johnson and the Johnson Publishing Company especially interested me for several reasons.

One of course is Mr.

Johnson's personal success.

I always liked meeting successful people.

But there was something else.

By his efforts, Mr.

Johnson is not only providing new opportunities for an increasing number of Americans, he is also doing his part to demonstrate the capacity of the Negro community to make a contribution to the education and culture of all the people of the United States.

I was amazed at the speed and ingenuity of this giant machine.

In another area, an equally amazing machine cuts the printed paper into separate pages, assembles them, and stitches them together to become completed copies of the magazine.

You may be sure my thanks were heartfelt when at last the time arrived for me to say goodbye.

Here's the final product.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Johnson.

Thank you.

Seeing how an issue of Ebony is published is very fascinating.

And please thank the members of your staff for their cooperation.

I am most grateful to you.

I have enjoyed this trip to Chicago and the look at the publishing business.

I hope you have also enjoyed it, and will find Ebony and other magazines more interesting after this trip.

This is Michael Kubenji, sending regards from the United States.

Thank you.

Identifier
F.2012-03-0586
Date Of Production
circa 1963
Abstract
Episode of the United States Information Agency's television series "Personal Report" about Johnson Publishing Company and Ebony magazine. Inaugurated by U.S.I.A. in 1963, the series projected selected aspects of American culture to a Nigerian television audience and was hosted by Michael Kubeyinje, a Nigerian student in Washington.
Description
After buying a copy of Ebony at a newstand, Howard University student Michael ​Kubeyinje introduces himself as the host of this episode of "Personal Report," which will focus on Johnson Publishing Company, publishers of Tan, Negro Digest, JET, and Ebony.

Kubeyinje first meets with Simeon Booker, the Washington, D.C. bureau chief of the Johnson Publishing Company. Kubeyinje explains Booker's responsibilities, and the film cuts to footage of Booker attending one of John F. Kennedy's press conferences.

Kubeyinje then travels to JPC's headquarters at 1820 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago. He meets with JPC founder John H. Johnson in his office, and the history of the business endeavor is explained through voiceover. Kubeyinje explains that, by starting Ebony in 1945, Johnson wanted to show the daily lives of Black Americans: "how he lives and works, how he spends his leisure time." 

The two take a tour of the Chicago headquarters, where they stop to talk with Era Bell Thompson, one of Ebony's managing editors and author of Africa, Land of My Fathers (1954). Continuing their tour of how an issue of Ebony gets published, they meet with Herbert Nipson, Ebony's other managing editor. We are then introduced to writer Lerone Bennett Jr., author of Before the Mayflower (1962) and future writer of Ebony's Black Power column.

Kubeyinje then travels to the set of a photoshoot at Sheraton-Chicago Hotel's swimming pool, where Ebony photographers and journalists are working on a story about Chicago swimming instuctor Jack Hall's method for learning to swim in 20 minutes, inspired by racial disparities in incidences of drowning. Models Margaret Kuykendall, Sonya Holmes and LaDoris Foster are photographed getting lessons from Hall. After a brief scene in a photography studio, Kubeyinje and Johnson travel to the Art Department, where Kubeyinje's voiceover explains Ebony's cover design process.

Kubeyinje then goes to meet with Era Bell Thompson at her Prairie Shores Apartment near E 29th St. and S Martin Luther King Dr. Over tea, Thompson recounts her story of growing up in Iowa to Kubeyinje. She shows him some of the souvenirs and art she has purchased on her many visits to Africa.

Back at the JPC office, Kubeyinje meets with LeRoy Jeffries, vice president of advertising, and Robert Fentress, head of the promotion department. Next we travel to Ebony's test kitchen, where Doris Jamison Robinson heads up the "Date with a Dish" feature. At JPC's reference library, editors fact-check stories. In the subscription department, punchcards are processed by machines and address labels are printed. In the press room, magazines are assembled by giant machinery.
Run Time
0:15:57
Format
16mm
Extent
572 feet
Color
B&W
Sound
Optical
Reel/Tape Number
1/1
Has Been Digitized?
Yes
Language Of Materials
English
Element
Print
Genre
Journalism
Form
Television specials
Subject
Advertising
Africa
African Americans
Business
Business people
Chicago (Ill.)
Clothing and dress
Cultural relations
Factories
Globalization
Machinery
Michigan Avenue (Chicago, Ill.)
Photography
Politics and government
Swimming
Related Collections
SERIES II: Collected Films

Related Places
North America ➜ United States ➜ District of Columbia ➜ Washington DC
North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago

Sponsor/client
United States Information Agency

Participants And Performers
Michael Kubeyinje (is commentator)
John H. Johnson (is participant)
Era Bell Thompson (is participant)
Lerone Bennett Jr. (is participant)
Simeon Booker (is participant)

 
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