Desiree Rogers, the former White House social secretary who left that
job after a D.C. couple crashed a state dinner, has been named CEO of
Johnson Publishing, the Chicago firm that puts out Ebony and Jet
magazines. The news was announced Tuesday, just a few days after the
premiere of "The Real Housewives of D.C.," a reality show featuring the
dinner crashers, Michaele and Tareq Salahi.Rogers has been consulting at Johnson since June, working alongside her close friend and Johnson's chairman and former CEO Linda Johnson Rice. In her new role, Rogers will oversee the day-to-day operations of the largest African-American owned and operated media business, with an immediate goal of reviving the monthly Ebony and weekly Jet magazines, as well as Fashion Fair cosmetics.
On Wednesday, Rogers was in her office at Johnson preparing for an education roundtable with Ebony, MSNBC and the University of Chicago, and she took a few moments to talk with Speakeasy about her future with Johnson Publishing.
The Wall Street Journal: What sorts of changes do you foresee for Ebony and Jet?
Desiree Rogers: The future is bright. These are iconic brands, and we have the opportunity to refresh and modernize them. Our first focus will be on the fundamentals: what do the books look like, distribution, circulation and content. From there we can move on to the digital realm. We have a lot of work to do on the front end, and it will start with a dialogue with our readers and with our future readers.
Source: Lori Barrett, The Wall STreet Journal: "SpeakEasy"
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