Oh, For The Day In Which This Is Not Notable

4:02 pm EST November 16th, 2007 | Media | 3 Comments

Men’s Vogue is using black men on its covers.

While other magazines shy away from putting African-Americans on the cover in the belief that they don’t sell as well, the new Conde Nast men’s magazine has devoted four of its 12 covers so far to black men: Tiger Woods, Barack Obama, Denzel Washington and, in December, Will Smith.

Is this just a statistical anomaly, or is Men’s Vogue courting black readers the way corporate cousin Details cultivates a gay audience: not exclusively, but purposefully?

"I don’t think that Tiger or Senator Obama appeal only to one segment of the population," says editor in chief Jay Fielden. "In fact, they proved to be two of the best-selling covers we’ve ever done, and we have good reason to expect even more from Denzel Washington and Will Smith. If there is some industry rule of thumb that you can’t have African-Americans on the cover more than so many times a year, then we’re glad to be the ones disproving it."

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3 Responses to “Oh, For The Day In Which This Is Not Notable”

SpiderJ says:

November 16, 2007 at 5:28 pm

I don’t think it’s a hard sell for any magazine to put Barack, Will, Denzel, or Tiger on their covers. Their attractiveness has crossed race lines numerous times and is a proven commodity. The real test will be when such magazines start putting lesser-known, but nonetheless attractive black men on their covers–Mos Def, Chiwetel Ejiofor, any number of football or basketball players.
me2i81 says:

November 16, 2007 at 6:54 pm

Black men are the style leaders in this country, so it’s not surprising that Men’s Vogue would put them on the cover. When you think of stylish famous men, you think Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Sean Combs, etc.
C.S.Strowbridge says:

November 16, 2007 at 7:20 pm

Chiwetel Ejiofor is an awesome actor. The kind that’s so good I’d watch him in a movie I was otherwise uninterested in.