Johnson Publishing heir, shedding last vestiges, resigns from Ebony Media board

Linda Johnson Rice, heir to the iconic, now defunct Johnson Publishing Co. brand, on Thursday resigned from the board of the firm to which she’d sold the Ebony and Jet magazine brands, citing disappointment in the firm’s operations.

“After considerable thought, I have decided to step back from my duties as Chairman Emeritus and from the board of Ebony Media Operations and Ebony Media Holdings LLC, respectively and immediately,” Johnson Rice wrote in a letter addressed to the co-founders of the Austin, Texas-based Clear View Group LLC, obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

“This decision did not come easily. When I agreed to continue on with the companies after the sale to CVG Group, I did so hopeful that the Ebony and Jet brands would continue to be a dominant and positive force in the African American community,” Johnson Rice wrote to Michael Gibson, chairman, and Willard Jackson, vice-chairman, of CVG’s Ebony Media Co.

Provided/Smithsonian Institute

“Obviously, despite my hopes, the last three years did not result in what I envisioned when the transition occurred, and because of that, I have made the decision to move on.”

The letter severs final ties of the heiress to the groundbreaking magazines published by the firm that her pioneering father, John H. Johnson, founded in 1945. She had stepped down in March 2018 as Ebony Media’s CEO, a role she’d agreed to maintain after selling the publishing unit to the investment firm in 2016.

It also caps a tumultuous two years for both Johnson Rice, who filed for bankruptcy protection for what was left of her firm in April; and for Ebony Media, which apparently bit off more than it could chew, and has struggled to keep the magazines afloat.

Ebony Media had continued an ongoing beef with freelancers who previously battled for pay from Johnson Publishing, before being forced into a February 2018 agreement to pay $80,000 to 45 freelance writers. This past spring, Ebony disappeared off the shelves — Jet had been digital-only since 2014 — and the company called it a “print hiatus.”

Members of the National Association of Black Journalists who continued to write for Ebony until it disappeared, however, say the firm essentially ran out of money to fund its print operation. Efforts to reach Gibson and Jackson for comment were unsuccessful.

“I hope you will never lose sight of the contributions my parents John H. and Eunice W. Johnson made, and of course the legacy of Ebony and Jet,” Johnson Rice wrote in her letter, putting a positive spin on the demise of her own company, which had consisted of the Fashion Fair Cosmetics line and archives of some 4 million historic images.

The photo collection was purchased at auction in July for $30 million by a philanthropic group pledging to donate it to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and other cultural institutions. And an auction is planned next month for its iconic cosmetics line for Black women.

“Obviously, the transition of the Johnson Publishing Company archives earlier this year was critically important to seeing the legacy of my parents live on in perpetuity. I know that as I move forward, I intend to explore projects to support that history and legacy which I hold deeply to my heart,” Johnson Rice wrote.

“Please allow me to use this as an opportunity to personally thank the many talented staff who worked at Ebony Media Operations with tireless dedication and commitment.”

Sun Times file photo