Magic Johnson in Talks to Purchase Ebony and Jet Magazines

Magic Johnson is in talks to purchase Ebony and Jet magazines, according to Bloomberg News. The two magazines, which are owned by Johnson Publishing Co., are icons in the black community and have covered some of the most important events of our time.

Recently, Johnson Publishing Co., like many media outlets, has come under severe financial pressure due to the economic downturn and a 38 percent decline in advertising revenue.

"There have been discussions," Eric Holoman, president of Los Angeles-based Magic Johnson Enterprises, told Bloomberg News. "There's no definitive agreement."

The historical significance of the two magazines to the black community is unmatched. Johnson Publishing was founded in 1942 by John H. Johnson and has remained a family-run enterprise. They published during a time when news about African Americans was not covered by the mainstream media. Ebony, along with many other black-owned newspapers, played a major role in covering the Civil Rights Movement.

According to Bloomberg News:

Photographer Moneta Sleet Jr. was working for Ebony when he shot the Pulitzer Prize–winning image of Coretta Scott King and her young daughter at Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral in 1968. Jet stirred controversy in 1964, when it ran photos of 14-year-old Emmett Till in his coffin, beaten beyond recognition, in a racially motivated attack. Ebony's resonance was underscored when president-elect Barack Obama granted the magazine his first print interview following the 2008 campaign.
These magazines deserve to be saved, and Magic Johnson is a good candidate to do it. He has taken to the business world with the same skills he used to win multiple championships with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Johnson handled the ball unlike any man his size in the NBA and was a prolific scorer and leader. Off the court, he has turned his HIV diagnosis into a rallying cry to raise awareness about the disease, while bringing mainstream businesses into urban neighborhoods.

The one bad move Johnson has made in recent years is his decision to work as a spokesman for Rent-A-Center, which many believe takes advantage of poor and financially illiterate individuals and has been the subject of litigation and lawsuits. Johnson should not be a shill for an organization that many believe takes advantage of the very communities he says he wants to improve. Besides, does he really need the money?

Saving Ebony and Jet magazines is the type of investment Johnson should be making with the millions he has earned with the support of the black community.