Highly selective quotes from J. C. Phillips.
http://www.josephcphillips.com/html/Essays2003.asp?Essay=61&Title=Republicans%E2%80%99+Room+to+Grow
Conservative Commentator Armstrong Williams has stated that the party cannot remain lilly white any longer. He is correct. As big a fan as I am of Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice I am frankly tired of hearing about them. Where is the rest of the talent in "The Big Tent?" Unless Republicans manage to place a few more Black faces on the national scene and elect some Black congressmen, they will continue to have trouble refuting Liberal claims that Black conservatives are lackeys who represent no one but themselves.
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The case for Republican policies must be made in churches, it must be made on the campuses of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and it must be made anywhere there's a gathering of Black minds and bodies. And Republicans -- both White and Black -- must make these arguments! White candidates must stop conceding the Black vote to their Democratic opponents.
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If Blacks have been slow to respond, it is only because Republicans have not yet taken that all important step and leaned in for that first kiss.
http://www.josephcphillips.com/html/Essays2002.asp?Essay=34&Title=How+did+this+conservative+end+up+on+National+Public+Radio
Commercial radio didn’t call me up and give me an opportunity to put my views on the airwaves, National Public Radio and Tavis Smiley did. And I have been listening to Public radio ever since.
What I have discovered is that NPR and in my case Tavis Smiley, is dedicated to providing a forum for voices you might not otherwise hear, for exposing issues that other broadcast media might overlook and this reaches across the entire ideological spectrum. Just goes to show that you never know what or whom you might hear on NPR. I have heard everyone from David Boaz from the Cato Institute talking about the Libertarian Party to Ward Connerly of the American civil rights institute talking about pizza delivery. You just never know.
http://www.josephcphillips.com/html/Essays2002.asp?Essay=12&Title=Barely+Entertainment+Televison
The sad truth, however, is that so convinced are Viacom and other “White” media companies that this underachiever represents the sum total of the Black consumers desires that they are not only reluctant to challenge BET in the marketplace as they would any other company, but they also hail, Johnson’s performance as genius. (Performance, by the way, they would not accept from a white executive running a 3 billion dollar company.) Meanwhile, the Black cable subscriber (who clearly has the patience of Job) waits for BET to fulfill its promise and become a real network catering to the entertainment and informational needs of the Black community.
http://www.josephcphillips.com/html/Essays2003.asp?Essay=102&Title=Vanguarde+Media:+Black+voices+silenced?
Unfortunately, as with BET's film series, Vanguarde was not given the opportunity to nurture the creative venture to success. According to media experts I spoke with, it takes five to seven years for a magazine to turn a profit. Vanity Fair, considered by many as one of the premier publications in the nation, hemorrhaged money to the tune of $40 million during its first four years of operation, but Conde Nast, the owners of Vanity Fair, had the luxury of very deep pockets. Vanguarde, on the other hand, was going into its fifth year of operation, and while revenue was up, ad pages were up and the circulation (which dictates advertising sales) was growing for all the magazines, their pockets were empty. The result is that there are now three fewer outlets for journalists who wish to speak about black issues to black people and 70 full time professional journalists will be looking for work during the Christmas holiday. The financial impact of the magazine closings will also be felt by the many black freelance writers, photographers and other independent contractors that were able to make ends meet with work garnered from those publications.
I worry, because just as Hollywood did not rush to fill the void left by BET and offer a flood of diverse films featuring black characters, I do not believe mainstream publishers will sprint to fill the void left by Vanguarde and suddenly begin speaking to the issues and concerns of the black professional reader.
Posted by at September 12, 2004 07:47 PM | TrackBack
My comment here is Vanguarde, like so many Black-owned, Black-themed entities, is a unwitting victim of its own self-imposed limits. It's one thing when your goal is to establish a viable niche business; it's another to expect a niche market to reach market parity with the proverbial mainstream product. For example, BET's business model is essentially one of Black aesthetics -- a 'Black' face following 'White' business parameters. The prohibitive costs involved with operating a conventional, commercial basic cable channel nationally are the primary factor which influences where the network seeks its sponsors and programming. Experience instructs me the pool of national ad revenues isn't sufficient for perpetually sustaining a niche channel. BET, TVOne, MBC literally compete against each other for the same slice of ad dollars set aside by Katz, et al, targeting 'ethnic markets'. Vanguarde undoubtedly has been affected by the same pathology.
It is incumbent upon the executives of these companies to innovate new business models -- especially those using alternative sources of revenue -- in order to satisfy their financial goals. IMO, it's unrealistic for the publishers of Savoy to follow the 'big box' approach used by Esquire and expect to make a profit, let alone compete on the same level. I would recommend aspiring Black publishers utilize a more cellular approach.
Posted by: MIB at September 13, 2004 02:08 PM