A private equity firm has purchased Ebony and Jet magazines from the Chicago-based Johnson Publishing.
The sale, which took place in May, was first reported by the Chicago Tribune.
Austin-based ClearView Partners, with backing from Houston private-equity firm Park View Capital Partners, are the new owners.
“We made this purchase because this is an iconic brand — it’s the most recognized brand in the African American community,” Michael Gibson, Clear View’s co-founder and chairman, told the Dallas Morning News. “We just think this is a great opportunity for us.”
The new company, to be known as Ebony Media Operations, is expected to be chaired by Gibson and have former Chief Operating Officer Cheryl Mayberry McKissack as the new CEO.
Johnson Publishing was founded in Chicago in 1942 by John H. Johnson and his wife Eunice. It is currently headed by his daughter, the company Chairwoman Linda Johnson Rice.
Ebony, a periodical that has reflected the lives of African Americans since 1945, was a notable influence and observer during the civil-rights movement of the 1960s.
Johnson Publishing has been rapidly down-sizing its operations by over the past five years to keep pace in the rapidly changing media world. It suspended print publication of JET and made it digital-only in 2014.
It also sold its Chicago headquarters building.
In January of 2015 Johnson Publishing put its whole photo archive up for sale for $40 million. The photo archive – which spans seven decades and includes historical and iconic images that reflect the African American experience – of is not a part of the sale.
In addition to the divested media operation, the company includes Fashion Fair Cosmetics, which the Johnson family will continue to own.
Rice will serve as chairwoman emeritus on the board of the new company that Clear View Group is creating to produce the two magazines.
“This is the next chapter in retaining the legacy that my father, John H. Johnson, built to ensure the celebration of African Americans,” Rice said in a statement regarding the sale on Tuesday.
Ebony Media Operations will work out of the magazine’s Chicago and New York offices.
“It’s a dream come true,” Gibson told The Dallas Morning News. “Growing up we had Ebony and Jet in our household all along. “You knew you made it when you made it to the cover of Ebony or Jet.
It’s just exciting – I pinch myself every morning.”
Information from The Dallas Morning News, The Chicago Tribune and The New York Post contributed to this report.
