Philly Mag’s Cover Photo and Examining the Bigger Picture

To focus at this moment solely on Philadelphia Magazine and their cover photo would be to deny the existence of true injustice within the City’s media ecosystem.

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The gist of a question posed last night at the Monitoring Hollywood event convened by the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, was why race is always talked about in a seemingly uneasy, un-authentic way by mainstream news media organizations.

An honest answer came from Mr. Solomon Jones, a morning show host on 900am WURD and a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News.

“We ain’t in the newsrooms,” he said, referring to the almost low or no numbers of African-American that either work in or lead American newsrooms.

Mr. Jones’ answer was timely, considering Philadelphia Magazine – a mainstream publication with no black writers or black editors – is currently under fire for its October cover photo which features, in an effort to draw readers to its guide of quality Philadelphia educational institutions, an assembly of non-black children in front of a school building.

But Mr. Jones’ answer also calls into question the impact of the non-profit organization that convened the conversation, one whose core function is to advocate, on behalf of black journalists seeking employment, for diversity in newsrooms.

The co-organizer of the event, Mr. Johann Calhoun, news and special project editor at the Philadelphia Tribune, was the former President of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, succeeded now by Mrs. Cherri Gregg-Mincey, community affairs reporter at KYW NewsRadio.

Prior to the event, at the Philadelphia Tribune’s headquarters, I questioned Mr. Calhoun as to the success and impact of the organization in the past, and he was forthright, though hesitant, in responding:

“We can be harder, more direct and more outspoken,” said Mr. Calhoun, who noted the activism from the organization over the last 20 years was “up and down.”

The seemingly lackadaisical activism from black journalists in this market should be considered a mitigating factor in why, in addition to Philadelphia Magazine’s zero number count of black bodies in their news operation, Philly.com falls short of black editorial staffers – when I last visited the number count was also zero –and at Comcast, the local media development team, albeit small and nimble, is also majority non-black.

Two years ago, after Philadelphia Magazine came under fire for their “Being White in Philly” article, the editor-in-chief, Mr. Tom McGrath, pledged an insurgence of diverse voices.

Only one black hire was made, and currently, as mentioned earlier, the number count is back at zero, though Mr. McGrath said this morning on Mr. Jones’ show that Philadelphia Magazine isn’t a lily white operation.

“We’ve made some progress,” he argued.

Mr. Jones, as he did two and half years ago during the peak of the “Being White in Philly” outrage, suggested Philadelphia Magazine hire black writers, but what wasn’t equally as vocal was assigning responsibility to black writers to start news outfits, though last night Mr. Jones did stress the importance of owning and telling your own stories.

The narrative of black media ownership is almost non-existence in the Philadelphia market, which results in there being only three quasi-mainstream black news outfits in the City: The Philadelphia Tribune, 900am WURD and Techbook Online, compared with at least double that number in their white and/or corporate owned counterparts: Philly Voice, Billy Penn, Interstate General Media – which owns The Philadelphia Daily News, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly.com – Comcast, WHYY/Newsworks, IHeartMedia, the ABC affiliate, the CBS affiliate, the Fox affiliate, KYW NewsRadio, Metro News/Philadelphia City Paper, Philly Weekly and Philadelphia Magazine, which is overseen by MetroCorp Publishing.

To focus at this moment solely on Philadelphia Magazine and their f*ck-up on a cover photo would be to deny the existence of true injustice within the City’s media ecosystem. And with such an injustice, it does behoove black journalists to increase the rigor they employ to bring about equity, parity and inclusion.

For the record, all the criticism Philadelphia Magazine is receiving is warranted and I know, after talking with the editor, that they wished they would’ve done things differently.

But as Philadelphia Magazine seeks to rectify their diversity issue, it would be wise for black journalists, and journalists of color, to augment their activism and entrepreneurial prowess. In this moment, we should all look at the bigger picture: A largely black city with minimal black media representation going largely un-scrutinized in an era where racial disparities are dominating national narratives.

There’s a problem in Philly, and it’s not a photograph of seven non blacks kids on a publication that services a largely non-black audience.

* Tune into 900amWURD or 900amWURD.com every Friday evening at 6:30pm to hear me relive #TheWeekThatWas*

Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™