Mimi Valdés, former editor of Vibe and Latina magazines, is leaving Black Entertainment Television after only three months, a BET spokeswoman confirmed for Journal-isms on Wednesday.

Valdés is BET’s vice president for content, supervising BET.com.

In June, after Valdés was hired, BET.com was the most widely viewed Internet site catering to African Americans, according to ComScore, an Internet ratings service. But it lost half its unique visitors and slipped to third place among those sites in the September ratings, a ComScore spokeswoman said on Thursday. The site had also laid off six people.

In June, BET received 3.5 million unique visitors, compared with 2.9 million for AOL Black Voices, 2.3 million for MediaTakeOut.com and 1.7 million for Black Planet.

In September, the rankings were AOL Black Voices, 2,568,000; MediaTakeOut.com, 2,144,000; BET Networks, 1,702,000; and BlackPlanet.com, 1,695,000, according to the ComScore figures. Essence.com dropped from 968,000 to 943,000 unique visitors, and BlackAmericaWeb.com, which was not included in the June figures, had 343,000.

“Mimi Valdés will be leaving BET Networks and we wish her the best in her future endeavors,” spokeswoman Jeanine Liburd said.

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Story Developing…

NPR blew it by firing Juan Williams

Williams used his liberal credentials to take an issue out of the closet, something a lot of us felt but were not supposed to acknowledge. It was liberal catharsis, sort of like Bill Cosby’s comments on the self-inflicted failure of so many inner-city youth and their parents.

Allowing things to fester is not healthy. Covering your ears and walking off the stage — like Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar did when O’Reilly blamed 9-11 on Muslims — is not healthy.

As abhorrent as these views are to liberals, the majority of Americans relate to them. This discussion needs to take place openly and often. Otherwise it festers and blows up like it did at the so-called “Ground Zero mosque.”

This is where NPR blew it. [SOURCE]

NPR vs. Fox News: Juan Williams firing reveals deeper media fight

Williams is an accomplished journalist and an expert on the civil rights era. But his on-air comments had become more openly opinionated in recent years, and this was why in 2008 his job title was changed from “news correspondent” to “news analyst.” On Fox, however, he was expected to be a pundit, performing alongside such provocative figures as Bill O’Reilly. There, the format is more likely to be shoot-from-the-lip.

NPR’s reaction to the current episode is likely to prolong the controversy, certainly among fans of Fox and its most successful personality, Glenn Beck.

Writes NPR ombudsman Shephard: “This latest incident with Williams centers around a collision of values: NPR’s values emphasizing fact-based, objective journalism versus the tendency in some parts of the news media, notably Fox News, to promote only one side of the ideological spectrum.” [SOURCE]

Brian Williams on Juan Williams, Rick Sanchez: ‘Media Organizations are Exerting Their Own Right to Employ or Not Employ These Folks’

TVNewser: It’s been an interesting month for the TV business, with Rick Sanchez let go by CNN, and now FNC’s Juan Williams fired by NPR.  What do you think of all this, and what do you think of the media coverage of these controversial developments?

Brian Williams: We’ve [covered] Juan the past two nights. The other two networks led with Juan Williams last night. I didn’t think it was quite at that level. But this is ‘eye of the beholder’ stuff. This is where, as someone said on our air last night, the First Amendment gives you the right to say what you want. It doesn’t give you the right to be employed.

So, these media organizations are exerting their own right to employ or not employ these folks. But I think there has been a little bit of a thread of media people, in the public eye, saying things and paying a price for it. [SOURCE]

A little birdie is told J’Sticks that Amy DuBois Barnett (formerly of Honey & Teen People magazines) is now the EIC of magazine. For months now EBONY has been trying to make the right moves to stay alive in this harsh publishing market. There was the announcement that they would be focusing more on the web (this month’s cover with Niecy Nash features a masthead that only lists digital staffs but not editorial).

Black Politics On The Web posted this “official statement” today:

“I am extremely pleased to bring Amy DuBois Barnett on as part of the new leadership team,” said President and CEO Linda Johnson Rice. “She brings with her a wealth of experience, a keen journalistic eye and solid editorial judgment, which will serve well to help redefine the EBONY brand within the ever-changing marketplace.”

Barnett is a Brown University graduate and also has a M.F.A degree in creative writing from Columbia University. She is the author of Get Yours: How to Have Everything You Ever Dreamed of and More, an NAACP Image Award-nominated book for Black women.

“EBONY has always represented the best of African-African achievement, society and culture, and I couldn’t be more honored to be at the helm as we enhance this icon for the 21st century,” said Barnett. “I’m excited to bring the EBONY brand to multiple media platforms and to engage new audiences who will surely be moved by its resonant, provocative and authoritative perspective on today’s African-American experience.” The new appointment will replace Harriette Cole as acting Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director.

Discuss

Freelance writing’s unfortunate new model

With many outlets slashing pay scales, the well-written story is in danger of becoming scarce. The hustle is just beginning for new and seasoned freelancers.

Today’s reality is that much of freelancing has become all too free. Seasoned professionals have seen their income drop by 50% or more as publishers fill the Web’s seemingly limitless news hole, drawing on the ever-expanding rank of under-employed writers.

A low-key Tina Brown stares down a new beast, daily

A queen of old media resolves to profitably adapt it to what’s new.

…Tina Brown has never been one for self-doubt. A precocious magazine editor who breathed new life into the fusty Tatler (at age 25), Vanity Fair (at 30) and the venerable New Yorker (at 38), Brown’s success was notable for many things, among them the envy it inspired and her prodigious talent for self-promotion. And then came Talk, the magazine, book and entertainment venture that was supposed to secure her place in the cultural firmament, starting with the scandalously decadent launch party she threw at the foot of the Statue of Liberty in August 1999…

…For the past 15 months, she has presided over the Daily Beast, the newsmagazine-style website she created for her friend, Internet mogul Barry Diller.

The site’s growing readership suggests that she has been able to translate her trademark blend of intellectual depth and fascination with the shallows of pop culture to the Internet. But the big question looms: Can she help Diller figure out how to bring high-end advertisers to high-end consumers in a profitable way?…

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Someone over at Esquire thought it’d be cool to write about Mr. Empire State. Can’t fault them there. He’s coming off a big year. But then they went and gave the writer, Lisa Taddeo, the greenlight to cover him this way:

“Jay-Z is black black. He is old-school double-dark-chocolate-chunk black. He is black the way Labatt is blue. He is not white black, Barack black, like our president. Or the kind of black that doesn’t curse and deplores the n-word, the genteel black, like Oprah. He is, arguably, the first black-black guy to cross over into Oprah-land and Bill Clintonworld without making the Oprah-sized no-look-back forward flip that means you’re selling not necessarily your soul but perhaps something fleshier, a little more external.”

To make matters worse, they highlighted the above text for dramatic affect. Before you go thinking that it’s only black people who are thinking WTF other’s have sounded off on Esquire missing the mark.

Slate.com

The Unbelievably Bad Metaphors in Esquire’s Profile of Jay-Z

The Village Voice

On the Esquire Profile of Jay-Z That Is Making the Rounds Right Now

Oh and Happy New Year.

In her article Dickson refers to Public Enemy’s song “911 Is A Joke”. A copy editor unaware of the song and it’s discussion of the emergency telephone number, assumed 911 should have referred to the 9/11 terror attacks. The change in the article led to some confusion, and criticism of the reporter.

You can read about the fallout here. One of the things I find most interesting about this is as Dickson puts it, the disconnect between generations. She correctly states that the divide must be bridged, and that there’s a lot of work which must be done if we aim to have culturally sensitive reporting.

Also, what do you think of the Post’s policy of assigning collective blame for errors, which some say unfairly impacts those who don’t directly causes errors in the publication?

Journalist turned author Helena Andrews may have penned a black version of "Sex and the City"

Helena Andrews may be the latest journalist turned author turned screenwriter who makes it big, and this time Andrews could make it big in Hollywood.

A new Washington Post article highlights Andrews decision to take her personal odyssey with the dating life in D.C. very public. The article begins, “Helena Andrews is 29, single, living in D.C., and might be the star of a black “Sex and the City” — stylish, beautiful and a writer desperately in search of love in the city.”

So check out what Andrews told The Post about her decision to write her memoir “Bitch Is The New Black”, the impetus behind the endeavor, and how it’ll soon be turned into a movie by the creator of Grey’s Anatomy.

Of Color | Stylish Gifts

By SIMONE S. OLIVER

Somali fashion, do-it-yourself henna kits, children’s books that draw inspiration from the lives of Barack Obama and Sonia Sotomayor: it’s not hard to find gifts created for and by people of color this holiday season. Here are some possibilities.

This could be a case of when “keeping it real goes wrong”. Sure we all shop and knowing what to get for the holidays is key but making a separate list for people of color instead of incorporating it in the rest of the guide is a bit much…

After going under in June, VIBE was acquired by new investors , rebranded and relaunched in just a few months.

Yesterday, they debuted their cover – a split between new rap sensation DRAKE and problem posterchild Chris Brown.

What do you think?