In Black America; Ebony/Jet, with Michael Gibson and Lynn Norment

From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America. Ebony went through a process with a broker to put themselves on the market. We had some folks working in the industry colleagues that knew we were in the acquisition mode, knew that something like Ebony would be very near and dear to our hearts because it's so important to the African-American community that it was brought before us and fortunately we were able to put together a deal that everyone was happy with. Michael Gibson co-founder and chairman of Clearview Group LLC, an African-American investment firm based in Austin, Texas, the new owners of Ebony Magazine and JetMag.com. CBG purchased the Johnson Publications in May of this year for an underscores price. Johnson publishing will retain his fashion fair cosmetic business and his historic Ebony Photo Archives which remains up for sale.

A family owned business throughout his history. Ebony has documented the African-American experience since his first hit the new stands in 1945. It has shaped American culture ever since coming into his own as the reported from the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s in powerful pictures and words. Also, Ebony provided a much-needed national forum for African-Americans. It's contestant on African-American history, entertainment, business health, personalities, occupation and sports. I'm Johnny Ohmson Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program, Ebony Magazine, with Michael Gibson co-founder and chairman of Clearview Group LLC and Lynn Norman, former senior writer and managing editor, in Black America. Back when I was growing up and even after I started working at Ebony many years later, it was the only communications piece, the only media where we could re-stories about ourselves and get away from all the negative news and read about success stories.

It's presented great role model for me being in the South. We didn't have a whole lot right there in my little hometown. But it was like aspirational. It gave you something to look forward to, makes you feel like you could achieve, you could accomplish anything regardless of your background. Ellen Norman, former senior writer and managing editor with Ebony Magazine. Ebony is a pictorial news magazine first published in November 1945, created by the late John A. Johnson, who modeled the publication after the Life Magazine. Ebony celebrated African-American life and culture by depicting the achievements of African-Americans. It honored African-American identity by portraying African-American life,

including stereotypes and inspiring readers to overcome barriers to success. John A. Johnson began his career with Negro Digests in 1942 and started Ebony three years later. The magazine was so successful in 1972 that the magazine Publishers Association selected John A. Johnson, quote, magazine publisher of the Year End of Quote. In May of 2016, the iconic black publication was purchased by Clearview Group LLC, an African-American-owned investment firm based in Austin, Texas. The new company is known as Ebony Media Operations and is headed by Michael Gibson, co-founder and chairman, and Willie Jackson co-founder and vice chairman. We spoke with Michael Gibson regarding the purchase and the future of the publication. I spent the next 20 years with IBM and had a great time in a number of executive and leadership positions that led me across the corporation and around the world, and really to experience some opportunities that I think few African-Americans get to experience in a corporation of that size. In 2001, I decided to leave IBM and pursue my dream to become an entrepreneur, and so I have since that time started a company, development company, and I'm a real estate development company, and I've also worked with a number of startups here in the Austin area, mostly in operational positions.

In 2015, Willie Jackson and myself co-founded Clearview Group LLC, and in May of this year, the opportunity to purchase Ebony came before us, and it didn't take us long to make that decision that that was the right way to go, and we're very excited about it. For those that don't have a background in finance, give us a thumbnail definition of what you all do as far as forming an investment firm. Okay, so as an investment firm, we spend a lot of time looking at different opportunities. We look at the revenue that the company is generating, we look at the industry that the company is in, and most importantly, we look at the EBITDA, the earnings before interest and taxes. If that looks pretty well and looks like the company is pretty strong, we will enter into a proposed letter of intent with the owners.

And if the letter of intent is accepted by the owners, we then work with lending institutions to figure out how to get the deal financed. And in most cases, that means that you got to have some assets to use as collateral, or some other way to guarantee the funding that you're going to need to close the deal. In layman's terms, it's almost like buying a house. You see a home that you like, you make a proposal, you put a down payment on the house, and then you negotiate the contract. And once it's accepted, you go to a mortgage company, and you look for which mortgage company will give you the funding that you'll need to buy the house. How did you all come across Ebony as a company to purchase?

Ebony went through a process with a broker to put themselves on the market. We had some folks working in the industry colleagues that knew we were in acquisition mode, knew that something like Ebony would be very near and dear to our hearts because it's so important to the African-American community that it was brought before us. Fortunately, we were able to put together a deal that everyone was happy with. You mentioned that once you put forth a deal, then you have to shop to deal to banks. Everyone knows unless you've been on a rock for the last 40-something years, knows Ebony. But taking that idea to a bank is more than a feel-good type of endeavor, right? That's correct, right. There are institutions out there that understand our business in this media business, and they're used to funding companies like Ebony.

Unfortunately, we had a good partner. We had several partners, but one of the major partners is Parkview. It's a private equity firm whose headquartered in Houston CEO has become a good friend of ours. So he was very familiar with the opportunity. He was familiar with us and willing to make an investment along with some other lenders to make this happen. The other thing that Will Jackson and I were very fortunate to have on board with us was the support of Linda Johnson Rice, who is the founder of Ebony. I mean, I'm sorry, the daughter of the founder of Ebony. She also agreed to come to be a part of this, and so she still has ownership in the company. So important is it to you and Mr. Jackson and the other operating officer, the purchase Ebony, considering that BET was bought by Viacan.

I think essence is owned partly by a time magazine of having African-Americans buy an iconic institution. For Will and myself, that is probably one of the proudest things that we can say, and we know about this, is that we're very proud to say that Ebony is still an African-American owned company. And it still will remain critical voice for the African-American community. What do you see the company going forward? Well, we obviously didn't buy the company for the magazine itself. As you know, the company has been around for 70 years. It is the most iconic brand in the African-American community. And so for us, this is more of a media brand situation.

So if you know about Ebony, Ebony was built on three cornerstones, education, health, and kind of a lifestyle type of cornerstone. We intend to expand all three of those going forward. If you look at the magazine itself, it still has over a million and a quarter readers subscribers per month. The website has over 10,000 eyes looking at it per month. We would plan to really build on that customer base. In the health care, we have some work on the way, working with other partners to really put an offer out that will be a very high quality program that I think everyone in the African-American community will be very proud of. They can use it. And I think we'll see much more access to really quality health data through that avenue.

There's another, we have a program where we recognize the HBCU Queens annually. We are expanding that program significantly with better prizes for the contestants, better prizes for the universities that are participating, and a more quality type of engagement with the students at the HBCU campuses. We'll include 100% of the HBCUs in this program. On the, we have a, we have a digital website. You're going to see mock improvements in that digital website. And you're going to see more, more things get added to that website that are important to our community in the areas of entertainment, for example. We have some events that have been successful. There's a power of 100 that recognizes the top 100 African-American execs each in different industries each year.

We want to expand that significantly up until now has never been broadcasted. We're working with a few broadcasters, and we expect that we'll, we'll be able to land an opportunity. And so it will be, you know, expanded expansion of that property. And then there are other properties that you're, that we're going to roll out in 2017 that people have asked us for. And, you know, everything we do will be to improve the avenue brand. I know these type of deals don't happen overnight. How long did it take you all to get the, the tees crossed and the eyes dotted and, and you all signature on the contrary? It took us five months. Is that normal or unusual? That's a little faster than we normally can do a deal. But when everyone is working in the same, working together really hard and you, you have the same priorities, you can get it done that quickly.

Typically, a deal takes it away from 69 months. And I was kind of probably like a lot of friends and individuals that know you once this came across the wire. So I guess my question is, how has life changed from Michael Gibson? It has, it has changed significantly. I think I've only been home over the last month, maybe a week total in total. We're traveling quite a bit. We're meeting a lot of key people. Ebony is so important to a lot of folks. They all want to figure out how they can help what they can do. And so we're, we're visiting with a number of key people around the country and, and really trying to figure out what makes, what's going to make sense for our constituents as well as for the, the Ebony brand going forward. Willard is the same way. I mean, he and I have will road warriors. I can say, I can tell you that we travel constantly. Now, but it's all exciting.

It's, it's, we went to our first shoot cover shoot a couple of weeks ago. And it was just really exciting to see the professionalism that our team displayed with the, with the, the key person that's going to be on the cover. And it was also exciting to see how he related to our team and the respect that he had for our team. And so we were just overjoyed with the team that we've inherited. We were overjoyed with the access that we have and the respect that people still have for, for Ebony throughout the country. Is the operational team going to still stay in place? And will it still remain in Chicago? That is correct. We, we were very fortunate. That, that is one of the things we look for in, in, in an acquisition. We look at the team itself and, and whether we have a strong management team.

As we know that we don't have the expertise to ever run the company. That's not how we, how we envision managing clear view. So we were very fortunate to have a great team. Cheryl McKizzick, who was the chief operating officer for Ebony agreed to become the CEO with the acquisition and the rest of the team remained intact. We have a headquarters in Chicago and we have the editor and style team in New York and both locations are remaining. Have you been reached out to by other individuals that are trying to give you some money now to buy into this endeavor? Yes, we have. We have had lots of opportunities for folks that would like to participate. You know, we have been very selective about, you know, any, any investments. Even as we look at acquisitions and partnerships, we're still being very, very selective and very careful going forward.

I guess the, the other question, how did you all keep this on the husk husk for so long? In any deal, because there's so many things that stake and in particular, Ebony, we hired a PR firm right after we finished the letter of intent to sort of guide us because we knew that if any news hit the press, it was going to, you know, we didn't know how that could affect the team, how it could affect everything. And so it was, it was very well orchestrated by our PR team and instructing us along the way. Michael, you mentioned the immediate things that you all are attempting to achieve. What is the long-term goals?

So the long-term goals are to, are to, so for the first, first of all, we, this is so important to us and so exciting for us that we don't, we didn't buy Ebony to fail Ebony. I got you. So we want to expand Ebony and, and really take Mr. Johnson's vision and expand it in ways that we think he would be so proud of it that, you know, he would, he would smile to think about how we're helping people in the community, how we are delivering journalism for our community and speaking on behalf of our community. And so we expect to stay real true to those roots going forward. We expect to, you know, to, to leverage our brand in a way that's really important for, for all of us. And so if I had a crystal ball and looked out on the future, I think, you know, Ebony would be sort of again on everybody's comfortable, but in addition to be on everybody's screen.

And it'll be the first thing they look at every day to see what's going on and how should they dress and, and what, and how can they improve their health and so on? I understand. Any final comments, Mr. Gibson? Well, you didn't ask me about Willer Jackson, but I'll tell you whether it's been the greatest partner than anyone could have. We, you know, I look at him as a brother that I never had. We worked very well together. He's a visionary. He grew up in Denton, Texas and has always been an entrepreneur. And so that's a real asset for me, having come out of a corporate America. So we do have a great team. We have a great vision. In addition to Ebony, we're going to do some other acquisitions that you're here about in the future. And I think it'll be a clear view of your company that will be on the front of everybody's tongues. I guess since you mentioned and I'm being remistered not asking about Mr. Jackson, how did you all happen to meet and come together?

I was introduced to Willer in 2014. We were working on it. He and I were working on the acquisition together. I'm also a CEO of a staffing company. And he brought an opportunity to us that he'd been working on. So we worked on that acquisition for the better part of nine months to a year. We had to know each other. We really got to travel a lot, work together, long hours. And the acquisition didn't go through. Not because we didn't meet the letters of the law, but at the end the sellers decided that they weren't ready to sell. And so out of that, we realized that there's more to our relationship than just that deal. Let's go try to figure out some other things we could do. And I think since co-founder and chairman of Clearview Group LLC, the new owners of Liberty Magazine and JetMag.com.

In 1977, Lynn Norman was in Chicago for an uncle's wedding. And the friends suggested she visit Johnson Publications. She met with Mr. Jackson and the rest is history. Emily agreed to hire her and assign her to write an update story on R&B, sold single Al Green. Norman followed Green for two days without the use of a recorder or notebook to complete the story. Later, Norman became a memory of the management team that oversaw the day-to-day operation of the magazine, which had a monthly circulation of three million and a monthly readership of more than ten million. She quickly rose to the position of managing editor and helped to now 71-year-old magazine to maintain a fresh voice and embrace new media establishing her as a leader in the industry. In Albany, she wrote stories on topics ranging from business to male-female relationships, to religion, to lifestyle, and social issues, and profiles some of the nation's hottest newsmakers. I spoke with Lynn Norman regarding the purchase of the magazine and her career at Albany. You know, I was in Chicago for my uncle's wedding. My father's youngest brother was getting married. The family came up for an amount of Memphis suggested that I stopped by Albany. He had met someone there, turns out that the person he had met was not there, but I was invited to come by.

I had a good visit. I met Mr. Johnson that day, and within a week or ten days, they asked me to do a freelance story out of Memphis, and it was on Al Green. It was after the Gritz incident coming up on a year, and they asked me to do a story on how that Gritz incident impacted Al Green. And so I set that up. Did a story, had an interesting, very interesting day with Al Green. I got the story that was needed, and then I was offered a job. I wasn't looking for a job at Albany, but the story led to them offering me a job, and after pondering for a bit, decided to take it. A couple of years ended up being there throughout my career.

What was your initial impression of Albany when you went there? Well, it was, of course, a beautiful building, and I heard about it, read about it, because we took Albany at home, and by the way, it was on our living room coffee table, just like in so many other black homes across the country, but it lived up to everything that I had expected. They had a beautiful facility that had just opened in the early 70s, and so, and I was there in the late 70s when I first visited, and it was just an incredible building, most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. It seems to have been well organized. We get the publisher, the boss, Mr. John H. Johnson, was accessible. They took me in to meet him. He stepped out of his meeting and greeted me, and all of that, and I just felt that was a wonderful thing to do. He showed his personality and his approachability. He was a very down to earth person, and obviously, you know, very busy.

Over the years, why do you think Ebony Magazine has been so revered, particularly in the African American community? Back when I was growing up, and even after I started working at Ebony many years later, it was the only communications piece, the only media where we could re-stories about ourselves, and get away from all the negative news, and read about success stories. It was presented great role models. For me, being in the South, we didn't have a whole lot right there in my little hometown. But it was like aspirational. It gave you something to look forward to, makes you feel like you could achieve, you could accomplish anything, regardless of your background. The magazine has recently been sold to a private equity group here in Austin, Texas. What was your immediate reaction once you heard that your magazine had been sold?

I must say that I was not totally surprised, and I checked to make sure that it wasn't the correct. And it was because there had been so many rumors over the years starting getting serious, you know, immediately after Mr. Johnson passed in 2005, and I remember then that Linda Johnson Rice called all employees together and said, those are just rumors. I am not selling the company, et cetera, et cetera. But even since then, and especially after I left, I knew, at least I kept hearing that there was a possibility. So I wasn't shocked, but I was very happy to know it was being sold to a black company and that a black person would be in charge. That was important to me, and I think it was very important to many people in our community.

Over the years, as your impression of the magazine change, since you no longer work there, as I guess has the magazine still kept the standards in which Mr. Johnson set? Well, I think that as far as the quality and the look, that's all good, but a lot of the things that we once did in the magazine, you know, were kind of phased out. And it just became a different magazine, and I know, and even when I was there my last few years, was told that they wanted to attract a much younger audience. And I don't agree with all the decisions that were made as to how to attract that audience, and I do feel that, and I heard personally from some people in the black community, that they just felt like it was not their magazine. So I think that the standard, it looks great, but it's not the same avenue that it was, but yet we still don't have anything like it. It is still quite unique in the media world.

Len Norman, former senior writer and managing editor with Ebony magazine. If you have questions, comments or suggestions ask your future in black America programs, email us at jhansson at kut.org. Also, let us know what radio station you heard us over. Remember to like us on Facebook and to follow us on Twitter. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. You can hear previous programs online at kut.org. Until we have the opportunity again for technical producer David Alvarez. I'm Johnny O'Henson, Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week. CD copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in black America CDs. KUT radio, 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas, 78712. That's in black America CDs, KUT radio, 300 West Dean Keaton Boulevard, Austin, Texas, 78712.

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