Essence, a Time Inc.-owned monthly that is seen as the ultimate fashion and lifestyle title for black women, is wrestling with a controversy sparked by a former fashion editor who criticized the magazine’s decision to hire a white woman as its new fashion director.
Editor-in-Chief Angela Burt-Murray told Media Ink she’s aware of the controversy now playing out on Facebook after the magazine named Ellianna Placas, who has worked at O: The Oprah Magazine and US Weekly, as its fashion director but said she’s not changing course.
Michaela Angela Davis, who was also founding fashion director for Vibe magazine and a onetime editor-in-chief of the printversion of black fashion magazine Honey, started the cyber controversy yesterday with a Facebook posting that has attracted dozens of comments.
“It’s with a heavy heart I’ve learned that Essence magazine has engaged a white fashion director,” she wrote. “The fashion industry has historically been so hostile to black people — especially women. The seat reserved for black women once held by Susan Taylor, Ionia Dunn-Lee, Harriette Cole (+ me) is now — I can’t. It’s a dark day for me.”
The controversy has drawn over 90 comments on Facebook. Some, such as Elicia Johnson, wrote, “Wow. What a disappointment.”
But many of the comments seemed to be in the vein of “Let’s cut a little slack here and see what happens and maybe it will all turn out fine.”
“This is not inherently hurtful in my view at all,” wrote Danya R. Steele. “Who’s to say she won’t do a phenomenal job at paying incredible homage to Black female beauty? I wouldn’t write this person off based on race alone. I would be curious to hear more about context — background, past work and upbringing even.
Another commentator, Sarah Gentillon, countered: “If a publication such as Elle, or Cosmopolitan only hired white people in their company, we would quickly jump on that and start calling people racism [sic] etc. Times are changing people and we need to change with it.”
Burt-Murray told Media Ink: “I understand that this issue has struck an emotional chord with our audience. However, I selected [Placas], who has been contributing to the magazine on a freelance basis for the last six months, because of her creativity, vision, the positive reader response to her work and her enthusiasm and respect for the audience and our brand. We remain committed to celebrating the unique beauty and style of African-American women in Essence magazine and online at Essence.com.”
Newsday plum
After forcing a new labor pact through at his Newsday subsidiary, Cablevision chief James Dolan is apparently doling out a big promotion to the executive in charge of the negotiations.
Terry Jimenez, who was Newsday’s acting publisher and the executive most closely involved with Teamsters Local 406 of the Graphic Communications Conference, has been promoted to president of the Newsday Group, a new position.
Jimenez will supervise Newsday, as well as the free city daily, amNewYork, and Star Community Publishing, which puts out free shopper weeklies.
Conde buzz
The talk inside Condé Nast is that the soon-to-be-vacant Architectural Digest editor-in-chief job is going to Margaret Russell, editor-in-chief of Elle Décor.
Russell is said to be ready to succeed Paige Rense, the legendary editrix who said earlier that she planned to step down after the November issue closes at the end of August.
Russell, reached yesterday at Hachette Filipacchi Media, nearly slammed down the phone, but not before telling Media Ink, “I have absolutely no comment on that.”
But sources said that new chief brand officer of Elle, Robin Domeniconi, is already sizing up the field to find a potential replacement for Russell.
With Rense set to go very shortly, the expectation is that the replacement could be announced within the next week by Condé Nast Editorial Director Tom Wallace.
Yesterday one of the candidates whose name had been mentioned for the AD top job, Deborah Needleman, was officially out of the running. The former editor-in- chief of the popular but shuttered Condé Nast shelter magazine Dom ino was tapped to be the new editor of WSJ Mag azine and a new still-to- be-named weekend life style section that Wall Street Journal Editor Rob ert Thomson plans to introduce this fall.
[The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp., which also owns The Post.]