The outlook for the grand dame of black-owned publishing companies, Johnson Publishing, looks dimmer by the day.

Speculation began earlier this year that the company behind Ebony and Jet magazines was on the ropes. Then came the news came earlier this month that the Ebony Fashion Fair traveling fashion show -- a flamboyant staple of black women's fund raising efforts since 1958 -- was being canceled for the first time in its history. Now comes a Newsweek.com article that says the company is is putting its flagship title, Ebony, up for sale.

...It appears Johnson Publishing's chairman and CEO, Linda Johnson Rice, has reached what must have been an agonizing decision: Johnson Publishing is seeking a buyer or investor for its flagship publication, Ebony, in an effort aimed at securing the survival of the nation's oldest magazine devoted to African-American life. It's unclear whether the company's other properties, including Jet, would be part of a possible sale.

According to media and investment executives familiar with the developments, Chicago-based Rice, the daughter of Ebony's legendary founder, the late John H. Johnson, has approached, among others, Time Inc., Viacom, and private investors that include buyout firms. Time Inc., the world's largest periodical publisher, already owns Essence, a monthly lifestyle, beauty, and fashion magazine for African-American women. Viacom, meanwhile, owns BET (Black Entertainment Television).

Nothing has yet resulted from any of Johnson Publishing's overtures, however. And it's unclear whether negotiations are underway between the publishing company and any of the identified parties or other potential rescuers. SOURCE: Newsweek.com

It's a challenging time for print media in general, so Johnson Publishing's plight is not that unusual. Add to that the question of whether the brand can stay relevant with younger blacks, and prospects look even worse. The fact that black-owned Johnson Publishing faces this juncture during the year when a black man -- one whose social circle the CEO belongs to -- took the White House, is loaded with irony.

Still, no magazine holds the place in the collective heart of African Americans that Ebony has since its inception in 1945. Few sights hold the same impact as seeing the Johnson Publishing Company building hold its own in Chicago's skyline. And memories of the glittering, twirling pageantry of the Ebony Fashion Fair will live on for black women of several generations. I hope those things won't become casualties of recession or indifference.