We put Michael Jordan on the cover and people don’t say, ‘There’s a black guy!’” Though maybe he needed a little more reassurance, because he turned to me and asked, “Is that how it is with rap guys?” He says, “Wait a minute, we publish Sports Illustrated. Because, they said, covers with black faces didn’t sell. Does that mean we have to put black people on the cover?” It was a privately but not publicly stated policy at those magazines not to put black faces on the cover. This dapper guy in a suit and beautifully polished shoes says, “We’re publishing this. I’m summoned to this meeting on the 34th floor. Think of it as an urban youth-culture magazine.” That seemed to make them feel better. Sandow: I said, “Don’t think of it as a rap magazine. Quincy Jones: Celebrating Seven Decades of Music Because everybody was worried it was a fad. Gil Rogin (f ormer corporate editor, Time Inc.): Sandow wrote this 11-page memo about whether Time Warner should start this magazine about hip-hop. And he says, basically, “What the fuck are we going to do? We have a deal with Quincy Jones that says he can do anything he wants to do. Greg Sandow ( former music editor, Entertainment Weekly): I get a call at my desk from Gil Rogin, one of the top three editors at Time. He said, “If you got any ideas, give it to me.” Quincy Jones ( record producer/entrepreneur): Steve Ross said the “synergy” was not working quick enough for the Time Warner people. But the two very different business cultures - hip Warner and stodgy Time - weren’t blending. Two years earlier, Ross had executed the world’s first media megamerger, combining the record companies and film studios of his Warner Communications with the behemoth magazine and book publisher Time-Life to create Time Warner. In 1991, Steve Ross - the man whom Quincy Jones called his “guru” - called on the vaunted music producer for help. The Root, she said, “just seems like the perfect place for me.What follows is a selective oral history of the magazine, from its birth and ascent, through its 21st century transformation into a digital cultural bellwether and its 2016 acquisition by the Billboard Music Group. “Something magnificent and major comes out of struggle and sour times, times when people are questioning everything.” “I’m not in mourning any more, just looking forward,” she said. In an interview, she said she welcomes the tumult, despite the loss of Vibe. Smith’s career reflects the changing times in journalism, with many operations struggling and some dying, while new ones crop up, especially those that exist only onlineĪnd are devoted to particular interests. “More Like Wrestling” and “Bliss.” She has written for many publications, including Rolling Stone and The New York Times. In the interim, she was an editor at large at Time Inc. Smith was the top editor of Vibe, the urban music magazine, from 1997 to 1999, and again from 2006 until it closed this year. The writer Henry Louis Gates, who helped conceive the magazine and oversees it, is the editor in chief. She succeeds Lynette Clemetson, the managing editor who stepped down this year. Smith, 44, will have primary day-to-day responsibility for the Root, which was begun by The Washington Post Company in early 2008. Astrid Stawiarz/FIlmMagic-Getty Images The former Vibe editor Danyel Smith, right, with the rappers Yung LA and T.I.ĭanyel Smith, a novelist and former editor in chief of Vibe magazine, was named today the new executive editor of the Root, an online magazine of politics and culture aimed at a black audience.
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