No one said fixing the cracks in a publication's veneer would be easy. It's been obvious from day one that Desiree Rogers would have her work cut out for her in transitioning from the White House to Jet magazine, but another hurdle has emerged in the form of Mira Lowe, the magazine's first woman editor-in-chief, resigning.
Lowe's departure isn't too shocking given how dramatically the publication has been changing since Rogers took over. The changes range from the bare minimum ones any self-respecting publication must make (courting online readers via Facebook and Twitter) to more dramatic ones like shifting towards covering celebrity news with greater frequency. Rogers summed up the shifts to CBS:
One of the things we're hearing from... our readers, really, was they were looking for something fresh.
Given that Jet, when it started, was covering the Civil Rights movement, it's safe to say this is certainly a new direction. Though Lowe spoke amicably of the split to the Maynard Institute, a think tank for black journalists, and as a chance for her to pursue some new goals, it's still a reminder that if you make major changes at any organization, it's bound to have some rippling effects. Will Johnson's leadership continue to make more waves, or will it attract the talent she needs to help steady the ship?
