Publishing Giant John Johnson Dies

Influential Black Leader Founded Jet And Ebony Magazines

(CBS/AP)  Johnson encouraged major white companies to advertise in black media. He sent an ad salesman to Detroit every week for 10 years before an auto manufacturer agreed to advertise in Ebony.

"We couldn't do it then by marching, and we couldn't do it by threatening," Johnson said of gaining advertisers. "We had to persuade people that it was in their best interest to reach out to black consumers in a positive way."

According to the company's Web site, Johnson Publishing Co. Inc. is the world's largest black-owned and-operated publishing company. It also includes Fashion Fair Cosmetics and a book division.

As Johnson's companies flourished, his sphere of influence widened, winning him awards and honorary degrees for his work as publisher, businessman and black community leader, including the highest civilian honor in the U.S., the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Born Jan. 19, 1918, in Arkansas City, Ark., Johnson moved to Chicago with his family at age 15. After graduating from public schools, Johnson attended the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.

While working at the black-owned Supreme Life Insurance Co., where he started as a clerk, Johnson founded Johnson Publishing Co. in 1942. Its first magazine was Negro Digest, a journal that condensed articles of interest to blacks and published the poems and short stories of black writers.

Johnson used Supreme Life's mailing list to offer discount charter subscriptions of the digest. To persuade a distributor to take the magazine, he got co-workers to ask for it at newsstands on Chicago's South Side. Friends bought most of the copies, convincing dealers the magazine was in demand, while Johnson reimbursed the friends and resold the copies they had bought.

The tactic was used in New York, Philadelphia and Detroit, and within a year, Negro Digest was selling 50,000 copies a month. The magazine is no longer published.

Besides his wife, Eunice W. Johnson, who is secretary-treasurer of Johnson Publishing, the legendary publisher is survived by a daughter, Linda Johnson Rice, who is CEO and president of the company.

"He was in his office and alert and active until the end," said Rice, in a statement posted on the company's Web site. "He was the greatest salesman and CEO I have ever known, but he was also a father, friend and mentor with a great sense of humor who never stopped climbing mountains and dreaming dreams."

Aiming high was a lifelong theme for Johnson, who shared his thoughts on the subject in an autobiography entitled "Succeeding Against The Odds."

"I believe that the only failure is failing to try…and if my life has meaning," wrote Johnson, "it is because millions of Americans, Black and White, have proved through me that the Dream is still alive and well and working in America."