Word: digester
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Negro. It bulges with ads; revenue totaled $7,000,000 last year. Its publisher, John H. Johnson, puts out three other magazines as well: Jet (circ. 453,095), a pocket-size weekly of news tidbits; Tan (121,392), a monthly combination of homemaking advice and love stories; and Negro Digest (40,000), a literary monthly. Since he is also board chairman of Supreme Life Insurance Co. and owns a cosmetics company, Johnson is one of the wealthiest Negro businessmen...
George Washington's Vixen. Negroes who are dissatisfied with Ebony's moneymaking nonmilitancy need only turn to Johnson's money-losing Negro Digest-a strenuous voice of Black Power. Writing that is roughly eloquent mingles with writing that is just plain rough. "Every white throat cut is a success in itself," was one writer's contribution to racial amity. Digest was one of the first publications to take exception to The Confessions of Nat Turner on the ground that White Novelist William Styron was incapable of putting himself inside the skin of a 19th century Negro...
Even though Johnson does not personally subscribe to the theories advanced in Digest, he obviously feels a duty to keep on publishing it, despite the fact that it loses between $80,000 and $100,000 a year. He is happy to see its authors win prizes, as they occasionally do, and make their way into anthologies. "I think it's important," he says, "that all elements of the black movement be represented in the magazines." But he has no plans to replace a tolerance of diversity with a rigid creed. "Essentially, our policy is an inspirational one," he says...
Editors at Funk & Wagnalls say they are at a loss to understand why the Digest felt so strongly about the book. It does not enumerate many more vices than are already known nor does it propose any startling reforms. "The thesis of this book is that advertising should be cleaned up from the inside," says a Funk & Wagnalls editor, "lest it be regulated from the outside. What could be more harmless?" Says Author Baker, who was in the advertising business for 30 years before he retired five years ago: "I, too, think advertising is good for business and business...
...avoid accusations of censorship, the Digest gave Baker the 5,000 copies of his book and turned over the printing plates to him free of charge. He plans to sign a contract with another publisher this week; sales, prodded by the controversy, promise to be brisk. The Digest, meanwhile, plans to watch Funk & Wagnalls products more closely than before. "We will begin reviewing all manuscripts," says Lewis. "Reader's Digest will exert tighter quality control over Funk & Wagnalls...