Clarence O. Smith, who convinced the skeptics main advertisers of power and the value of the black consumption market as a founder of Essence, the first general circulation magazine addressed to Black Women, died on April 21. I was 92 years old.
Mr. Smith, who lived in Yonkers, New York, died in a hospital after a brief illness, said niece Kimberly Fonville Boyd. She did not provide other details.
The essence was the publication as monthly in May 1970 in an era in which the negative stereotypes are sometimes hateful of black women were common, said Edward Lewis, who was one of Essence’s four founders and that became its executive director.
“We had to overcome this perception,” he said in an interview. “Clarence suggested that we begin to tell the story of black women as strivers.”
Mr. Smith, as president of the magazine, in charge of advertising and marketing, made the initial tone to the reluctant companies that there were 12 million black women in the United States who controlled a market worth more than $ 30 billion, and that the magazine would point to 4.2 million of the richest among them, the women between the ages of 18 and 45 years that were urban, educated and had an increase in discrete income.
An extemporaneous speaker confident and charming, Mr. Smith had come well prepared with market research, colleagues said, but his challenge was evident from the beginning: the first issue of the magazine brought only 13 advertising pages, and the second and third number went to the pages even of the pages of
But while the magazine, with offices in Manhattan, continued to face obstacles, its prospects improved: the circulation went from an inaugural race of 50,000 copies sold to exceed 1.1 million. The number of advertising pages grew to more than 1,000 annually, attracting companies such as Lauder, Johnson & Johnson and Pillsbury. And the rate of a full page color Vrom $ 2,500 to $ 48,000 in 2001, according to Mr. Smith.
“Clarence was a relentless champion for the leadership of black women and the impact of our spending power that was ignored,” said Susan L. Taylor, editor of the chief magazine from 1981 to 2000, in an interview.
The essence seed is to germinate in November 1968, some a small group of black professionals: Mr. Lewis, Cecil Hollingsworth and Jonathan Blount, all strangers from each other, with a Wall Street conference held to encourage African -American entrepreneurship. Mr. Smith joined the group two weeks later.
It was a time of social and civil disturbances in the United States, with urban disturbances, the murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and the Vietnam War in its most deadly year. But it was also a period at the intersection of the civil rights movement and the empowerment movement of black women, or growing opportunities for the creation of black property businesses.
The concept of a magazine for black women was defended by Mr. Blouunt, according to Mrs. Taylor. “His mother would say:” Why do I have to read magazines where I see anyone looking for me? “
Mr. Smith, who had been the best seller of prudential insurance, had been the most successful of the four original partners, and the oldest, Mr. Lewis wrote in his memoirs: “The Man from Essence: Create a magazine for black women” (2014). He was also the only one with a car. Sightly, he persuaded automotive companies such as Ford, General Motors and Toyota to buy ads, something they had rarely made in women’s publications.
The first cover of Essence presented to the Barbara Cheesborough model, which carried an Afro and an aspect that suggested authenticity as an equal glamor.
Inside there were photographic trials on fashion and beauty, celebrating models or several tons of skin. An article, headed “Sensual Black Man, You Love Me?”, Exploited the theme of black men who come out and married white women. Another article focused on women who were active in the civil rights movement, from Parks Rosa to Kathleen Cleaver from the Black Panther party.
Given a preview of the inaugural theme, Philip H. Dougherty, the New York Times advertising correspondent, called him a “handsome work.”
Clarence O. Smith was born on March 31, 1933 in New York City of Clarence Smith and Millicent Frey (sometimes spelling Fry). Hello, it grew in the Williamsbridge section of Bronx.
In a 2005 interview with NPR, Mr. Smith described the neighborhood of his youth, mostly black but with integrated schools, as a university place where parents taught their children of personal overcoming and disinterest.
“We had the responsibility of growing to be people who made a productive life and who also took care of the community in general,” he said.
In Essence, to please advertisers, he pressed to place more ads in the front pages and encouraged the magazine to produce special problems dedicated to beauty or travel as ways to reach advertisers in those partular industries. Hey also hired a predominantly formed advertising sales personnel of black women, said Marcia Ann Gillespie, editor in chief of essence from 1971 to 1980.
“The resistance of white companies to associate with a Black Women’s magazine was really intense,” said Gillespie, and Mr. Smith, he added, “he always tried to find a path and around and was implacable about it. The failure was not in his list of pending tasks.”
Mr. Smith played crucial roles in the expansion of the Entertainment Side of Essence, an annual awards show that honored black women, and with a Festival of Culture and Music that continues to attract approximately 500000 attendees to New Orleans every July.
“He was futuristic,” said Barbara Britton, former advertising vice president in Essence.
Of the four original founders, Mr. Smith and Mr. Lewis were the only ones who remained with the company much later. But his 32 -year -old association deteriorated in the 1990s in a tangle of topics, personal and professional.
His final disagreement, in 2000, was for the sale of 49 percent of the essence to Time Warner. Mr. Smith opposed. Mr. Lewis wrote in his memoirs that it was his belief that Mr. Smith “did not want to see a viable Black-Ded company that is sold to whites.”
For 2002, Mr. Lewis possessed more actions than Mr. Smith and had won the advantage in the company. Mr. Smith was forced and received a purchase or $ 14 million after collecting $ 40 million, Lewis wrote. The two rarely spoke later.
After leaving Essence, Mr. Smith began a record label and a travel business.
Essence sold the remaining 51 percent of his property to Time Warner in 2005 (in 2018, the magazine was sold to Richelieu Dennis, the founder of a large company of personal care products, and turned completely black and has an Rob publishes six numbers six))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Together with Mrs. Boyd, her niece, Mr. Smith survives his wife, Elaine (Goss) Smith, and a Granddragray, Denise Díaz. The two sons of the Smiths, Clarence Jr. and Craig, died before him.
Mr. Lewis said Mr. Smith should be celebrated for helping to validate the value of black consumers and shape the way black women were perceived.
“He arrived as authentic, really believing what he was selling, backed by the investigation,” Lewis said, remembering the first days of the magazine. “We were always prepared, because we knew we were a market that nobody wanted to be part.”
