HuffPost BlackVoices | Vibe Vixen | Condé Nast
For the first time in its 103-year-history, Condé Nast has named a black editor to head one of its magazines.
Keija Minor is now editor-in-chief of Brides, the world’s largest weddings magazine. She succeeds Anne Fulenwider who left Brides earlier this month to become editor-in-chief of Marie Claire. Minor had been executive editor of Brides since November 2011, and was acting editor-in-chief after Fulenwider left. Before Brides, Minor was editor-in-chief of Uptown Magazine, a luxury title targeting African Americans. She was also editor-in-chief of Gotham.
In addition to Brides, Condé Nast publishes GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired, and Vogue among other titles. In its press release, Condé Nast praised Minor as being a gifted editor but it did not tout the fact that she is the first African American to helm one of its publications. Other news organizations did.
In an industry where people of color are underrepresented, the problem at U.S. magazines is particularly acute, Ta-nehisi Coates recently wrote in The Atlantic. That’s why Minor’s appointment is being trumpeted by HuffPost Black Voices, Vibe Vixen and other publications as ‘major news’ and ‘history making.’
HuffPost BlackVoices did note that Mark Whitaker was the first African American to lead a national news magazine, Newsweek, before becoming executive vice president and managing editor of CNN Worldwide.
The industry, however, still has a long way to go.
“Although the industry is still largely homogenous, it looks like it’s moving (slowly but surely) towards reflecting the increasingly colorful makeup of the country,” reports HuffPost BlackVoices. “We just hope as time goes on brides-to-be won’t be the only ones that benefit from a more diverse point-of-view and leadership when grabbing a glossy off the newsstand.”
