A Kansas City-based company pushes Jet magazine out of its time warp

[Blue_Tires]

For two decades, Donna Gardner of Overland Park has subscribed to Jet, the weekly newsmagazine that covers black America. She appreciates its news stories on topics such as hate crimes and racial profiling along with features on African-American celebrities, coverage she doesn’t necessarily see anywhere else.

When her daughter, Erin Gardner-Jensen of Olathe, visits, she thumbs through the most current issues. But would 27-year-old Gardner-Jensen subscribe to Jet herself? That’s iffy at best. The magazine, the pocket size of Reader’s Digest, seems stuck in a time warp.

“I see a Jet magazine and I think to myself, ‘Whoa, there’s a trip down memory lane,’ ” said 33-year-old Lorenzo Butler, a communications specialist for the Kansas City Public Library. “It has a real ’80s vibe. I don’t know anyone under 50 who reads it.”

But a Kansas City firm is hoping to change the minds of Butler, Gardner-Jensen and other young readers in an effort to revive the magazine. Willoughby Design, a group of 14 strategists and artists based in Westport, led a visual and content overhaul to modernize Jet, starting with this week’s issue and timed to make its debut during Black History Month.

Jet, first published in November 1951, is historically known for its photographs and coverage of the lynching of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American who was murdered after reportedly whistling at a white woman in 1955 in Mississippi. Historians credit Jet’s role in the civil rights movement: Readers who saw the level of brutality stepped off the sidelines and acted.

Since the 1970s, coverage evolved into a sort of Newsweek-People hybrid of news and entertainment. The popular “Beauty of the Week” feature — a pinup style photo of a bikini-clad woman — will remain in the redesigned magazine, along with readers’ wedding announcements.

http://www.kansascity.com/746/story/1753381.html

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LOL at the dude who thought as a kid it had a "real 80s vibe"...I'm the same age, and when I was a kid I thought the 'vibe' was circa 1969....

My parents (married in 1972) did have their wedding announcement run in Jet, back when it was a *really* big deal...There was such a long backlog that it took several months to finally appear...

[Number23]

1. lol I always thought Jet had a 70s vibe

There was something so old fashioned and old school about Jet, even back in the day.

Remember the Beauty of the Week pictures?? Do they still do those?? Oh my Lord... :rofl: There was something so sexist and so refreshing about those at the same time. This was at a time when black women were COMPLETELY ignored by the mainstream media (except Jayne Kennedy who popped up on Chips or The Love Boat every now and then. I used to think she was soooo pretty.) so it was great to see some sistas get a bit of press. I'm sure that's why they did it and why Jet did it too.

Just for the sheer hell of it, a pic of Jayne Kennedy -

When I was a kid, she and Linda Carter (Wonder Woman) were just IT for me.

[FrenchieCat]

2. Till she married that lame "Leon" guy,

and then I said.... :wtf:
and she went downhill from there.

But yeah, she had a lovely face!