Showing posts with label publisher's weekly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label publisher's weekly. Show all posts

Friday, December 18, 2009

Nobody reads Publisher's Weekly

But it's latest cover has given the blogoshere a coronary. Its latest issue features a cover story on African-American books and illustrates the article with a photograph of a black woman whose hair is full of Afro picks, left, all of them molded to look like closed fists giving a black-power salute. Before you could say 'right click', the magazine heard from readers and industry insiders who called the image offensive.

In a post on PublishersWeekly.com, Calvin Reid, the magazine’s senior news editor, wrote that the photograph, titled “Pickin’ ” and taken by Lauren Kelley, came from the new book “Posing Beauty: African American Images From the 1890s to the Present” by Deborah Willis. Mr. Reid wrote, “To me it is a sweet, tongue-in-cheek funny and striking image of quirky black hair power.” He added, “I certainly regret offending anyone and while I still love that image, I intend to think long and hard about whatever image is chosen for next year’s cover.”