THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 7, 1994 TAG: 9410060110
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SOURCE: BY KIA MORGAN, ALLEN CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
LET'S FACE IT: Most magazines today do not always have a practical approach to addressing the problem of our younger generation. Young people are often exploited and misrepresented as materialistic, sex-driven and confused.
One magazine running counter to that trend is Young Sisters and Brothers, better known as YSB. It has found its place among other top black publications - such as Black Enterprise, Emerge and Essence - in its three-year tenure. YSB uses innovative techniques - colloquial language, cutting-edge graphics and an aggressive how-to approach - to promote reader involvement around community issues.
YSB is geared toward African-American young adults, but it has something for everyone. It offers the latest on everything from entertainment to politics to finance But most important, it is concerned with the history and culture of African Americans.
Frank Dexter Brown, 40, a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, is the founding editor of YSB. Brown recently visited Norfolk State University as part of the YSB tour of historically black colleges and universities. In an interview, he offered his thoughts on youth today and his ideas for the future. These are excerpts.
How do you feel about the young people today and their situation?
BROWN: I have mixed feelings. While African Americans have always had problems, the current breakdown of the African-American community is more severe than ever. The high rates of crime, joblessness and homelessness and the problems between youths and elders are part of a major crisis.
In the face of all these problems, the thing that keeps me moving, keeps me hopeful and youthful, is the spirit and the strength of those young people who are fighting against these problems.
The majority of young people are not involved in gang banging. The majority are not having children as teenagers, and the majority are not giving up. And this is reflective of the people in YSB. In effect, the mass majority are more like what we see in the magazine than what we see highlighted on the 6 o'clock or 11 o'clock news or what we see so often in the newspapers.
In your magazine, you appeal to a target audience of 16- to 24-year-old African Americans; do you appeal at all to the white youth in that age range?
BROWN: It is not targeted to other ethnic groups, but it is designed to be appealing to these other groups. Other groups are reading YSB because of the popularity of African-American culture. Hip-hop is the major selling music in the whole business today, and everybody is imitating the way people are dressed and the way people have their intonations and the way people are putting beats together with music.
What has been your most controversial story?
BROWN: (laughs) It depends. For instance, we did a cover story on Public Enemy where Chuck D. had his fist straight into the camera, or the reader's face, and the cover line was ``Public Enemy in Your Face.'' It was a very aggressive graphic approach which reflected the strength of the group.
Now, I don't say that this is controversial, and most of the black community does not consider Public Enemy controversial. In fact, the group is saying things that society needs to hear. But some people call Public Enemy controversial because they deal with issues that some do not want to speak about or issues that many people do not want to address.
But in the general sense, the cover where we had a young man and a young woman holding a condom, or embracing and holding a condom. Our cover line was ``Sex: It's Not Worth Dying For.'' Some people would regard that as the most controversial (story) because sex is so often considered taboo.
The debate is raging right now in our school systems where educators and students, parents and elected officials are fighting over what should be taught. This is what we reported in our story. Whether we like to or not, we have to talk about young people and sexuality because of the situation with the increasing rate of AIDS and young adult pregnancies.
How is the magazine doing in the marketplace?
BROWN: Very well. Given the fact that we started the magazine in the worst ad period that the country had seen in 50 years, that our conceptual approach is so unique and cutting-edge, and that the African-American young adult audience had not been targeted before, we are doing extremely well.
We are at a point where, again, I think this year we would move into the black, basically become profitable. It usually takes a magazine anywhere from seven to 10 years to become profitable. I think our advertising dollars will be in place. We're reconditioning the behavior of advertisers who did not really give heed or respect to the young African-American consuming public.
Part of my excitement for how we are progressing is due to how readers are responding to our overall mission. For example, our tour is called ``Giving Something Back: 24-7-365,'' and basically it's a whole idea that we have got to do something for each other 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Each day, every minute, every second, we are giving something back to our community, and we are hoping that sharing ideas like this will, in turn, have an effect on other folks, that others will be involved in the same type of activities. MEMO: Kia Morgan Allen is a sophomore at Norfolk State University, majoring in
journalism. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
L. TODD SPENCER
by CNB