Linda Johnson Rice is a former magazine owner who was born of John and Eunice Johnson. Linda's father in 1942, founded Johnson Publishing Company, which published Ebony and Jet magazines. And as a result, was the largest black-owned magazine publisher in the United States. In 1982, Johnson became the first African-American to appear on the Forbes 400.

 

Linda wanted to be an integral part of her father’s and mother’s business. She began training in the fashion department at age seven, and took notes during business meetings and reviewing her parents' incoming and outgoing mail.

 

Linda attended the University of Southern California and graduated with a BA in journalism from the Annenberg School for Communication. She received an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management in 1987. Immediately after graduation, Linda became President and COO of Johnson Publishing until her promotion to CEO in 2002, becoming the first African-American female among the 100 largest black-owned companies in the United States.

 

In this second part of our conversation, Linda relives those dark days where she had to prepare the business for bankruptcy, and how a nurturing family and a loyal circle of friends helped her get through tough times.

 

We also talked about:

 

• How Ebony Fashion Fair and Fashion Fair Cosmetics evolved out of Ebony the magazine.
• Selling the magazine business in hopes of saving the cosmetics business.
• Hiring people with more relevant skills, but arguably too late to save the businesses.

• Overcoming self-doubt and the feeling of failure
• The making of Empire of Ebony, a major documentary directed by Lisa Cortez and Oscar recipient African-American Director Roger Ross Williams
• The possibility of making a docu-series about Eunice Johnson, Linda Johnson’s mother with major companies in the industry.
• How Linda is creating her own legacy while preserving  her parents’ legacy

Quotes: 

 

“Consciousness is self-awareness without being self-absorbed”

 

“You find out who your real friends are when things are dark and stormy. It's the people that hand you an umbrella to keep you dry who are the real friends that you can really rely on.”