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Pillars of Black Media, Once Vibrant, Now Fighting for Survival
BLUF: [NYT] In the late 1970s, the F.C.C. put into place a minority ownership policy that used credits and deferrals on capital gains taxes to help make minority businesses more competitive in the bidding process and promote the sale of existing stations to minorities.The policy, while not without critics, was largely considered a success among advocates of minority ownership. But in 1995, after a Supreme Court ruling that established new standards for race-based government policies, the F.C.C. began to disassemble the program. A year later, Congress ended the tax-deferral policy that had helped drive sales to minorities. It also did away with most restrictions on the number of radio stations a single company could own. The market for Chinese chamber pots continues to slip as well. The resulting wave of consolidation in the broadcast industry has made it more difficult for black entrepreneurs to enter the industry, said Alfred C. Liggins III, the president and chief executive of Radio One, which while publicly traded is the country’s largest black-controlled multimedia company. "That means that the likelihood that minority owners are going to own a TV station in New York or Los Angeles gets lower and lower," said Mr. Liggins, whose mother founded the company with a single radio station in 1980. For Johnson Publishing, which also owns the Fashion Fair cosmetics line, pressures on the business proved too difficult to overcome. In the last several years, it sold its historic building on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, brought on JPMorgan Chase as a minority investor and reduced its staff. "We did not feel that we had adequate capital and resources," said Cheryl Mayberry McKissack, who was chief operating officer of Johnson Publishing and is now chief executive of Ebony Media Operations. Yet as stories like Johnson Publishing’s have become more common across the industry, those who see their companies as following in its footsteps say the notion of black ownership continues to resonate. Mr. Williams, who referred to Ebony as "a staple" of his upbringing, said that young African-Americans regularly expressed awe that he, a black man, really owned television stations. "It does change the dynamic," he said, "of what they believe they can become." TAKEAWAY: Without government subsidy and intervention, free-market forces eventually prevail. Posted by: Besoeker 2016-07-04 |
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