Jet

The magazine Jet, founded by John H. Johnson in November 1951, is the leading African-American newsweekly. In 2003 its paid subscriptions were over 912,000 and its weekly readership was estimated at 11 million. Among the publications of the Johnson Publishing Company, it ranks second in circulation to Ebony, the popular large-format monthly magazine it was designed to complement.

Jet, whose title carries the connotation both of dark skin color and of speedy airplanes, was meant as a quick, pocket-sized review of black news. Founded on the model of Life magazine's unsuccessful pocket-sized feature magazine Quick, Jet was originally only 5¾ " x 4". Within six issues of its founding, it had a weekly circulation of 300,000. By the 1990s circulation was 900,000 per week, and the magazine had grown to a 7 3/8" x 5¼" format.

By the early 1990s, Jet was distributed throughout the United States and in forty foreign countries, including many African nations. Its appeal stems from its coverage of important issues in the African-American community and from its concise style. Jet 's articles are meant to cover important issues in readable form, for people who neither have the time nor wish to read deeply on current events but want to stay informed. Its reputation for news and commentary on social events was best expressed by a character in a play by writer Maya Angelou, who claimed, "If it didn't happen in Jet, it didn't happen anywhere."

See also Angelou, Maya; Ebony ; Journalism

Bibliography

Johnson, John H. and Lerone Bennett. Succeeding Against the Odds. New York: Warner, 1989.

karen bennett harmon (1996)
Updated by publisher 2005