Global Black: Huffington Post’s Joint Venture with Sheila Johnson

We have BlackPlanet, Black Voices, Black Enterprise and more. However “Global Black”, Huffington Post’s latest addition, misses the mark. Where branding is concerned, Huffington Post needs to tread softly as they move ahead with this planned union with BET co-founder Sheila Johnson. Not only does the brand name: “GlobalBlack” not hit the right emotional note but trying to make a connection by playing up the BET link won’t help to sway an already dissatisfied demographic.

Public Sentiment

Twitter is bringing back the experience of watching television in large groups of friends. Like the hashtag #NowPlaying or #np, #NowWatching followed by the hashtag of the show – or the show’s hashtag alone is a call to “watch it with me”. What those following the ratings fail to recognize is that many people are not gathering to watch these shows because they love them.

Despite achieving a major cable milestone with their scripted program, The Game, BET’s sentiment among the people is not strongly positive. Many are more loyal to those who they feel are making a positive impact in the community and world, in general.

Arianna Huffington seems headstrong about having a melting pot medium, which will essentially offer more diversity. However, I find her to be one of the most diverse people and progressive, so I’m curious to see how she plans on having an actual Black platform. I think it will work because she has a strong following. It sure does make room for more reporting/writing jobs. – Maya Carpenter

As a brand/social media strategist I definitely would not have chosen that name based solely on the fact that someone else has a similar name. What I believe is being debated is whether or not Sheila Johnson/BET is out of touch when it comes to being a socially responsible source for Black News. I don’t think anyone can really say that when it comes to reporting Black News, BET is your first choice. However, I firmly believe it’s my responsibility as a consumer of Black News online to support the websites that have been informing our community, in most cases, for 7-12 years: BlackElectorate, DogonVillage, BlackCommentator, BlackAgendaReport, and electronicvillage.blogspot.com. Also, to further inform the community at large that Black People were/are at the forefront of New Media/Web/Social Media, my business partner and I are working on the first Black Tech Docufilm that will cover: Emmitt McHenry, founder of Network Solutions; Omar Wasow, founder of BlackPlanet; Barry Cooper, founder of BlackVoices; Phillip Emeagwali, inventor of 2nd fastest supercomputer; UrbanExpose.com, 1st gossip business blog; and UrbanEntertainment, the original Video portal 5 years before Youtube. – Martin Johnson

Corporate Sentiment

Huffington Post should look within their own pages for the reason to divest themselves from a connection with BET, given Johnson’s statement that she is ashamed of the channel. Sheila Johnson was responsible for creating the show that won seven NAACP Image Awards and was widely lauded for its conscientious programming: Teen Summit.

I Hate BET Facebook Group

Is it time to create a campaign that sticks and unfollow media outlets with our remotes and tweeting fingers? Are we ready to sacrifice the joy we get in communing around our hatred of these television and award shows?

Questions to Consider

Angela Burt-Murray, who was the point of contact, left the GlobalBlack project ahead of the announcement of AOL’s purchase of Huffington Post for unexplained reasons. While her reasons remain unclear, some clarity could be brought to the following questions:

• How will GlobalBlack differentiate itself from its closest, established competitors? (Hint: Do we need more celebrity gossip?)
• Now that it has been purchased by AOL, what will happen to BlackVoices?

What these media outlets are missing is that we want our culture to be acknowledged but not separated.

What are your impressions of Global Black?