John Blassingame publishes hip magazines for blacks
Kay Bourne
NEWARK— Magazine empire builder John Blassingame has a CEO
slot many men fantasize about — he publishes the bi-monthlies
that feature the barely clad lovelies you see in rap videos, runs
the contests that supply the rap world with its models, oversees
the fashion shows where designers vie to see whose fancy duds are
the most alluring.
He didn’t get there by sitting home and dreaming about it,
however.
Currently, Blassingame owns three magazines: his flagship publication
“Hype Hair” with a circulation of 250,000; “Black
Women” circ. 200,000, and his newest offering “Black
Men” circ. 170,000. Additionally he’s associated with
some 20 other publications as a consultant.
He started out with Hearst as the giant publisher’s local
representative in the New York and New Jersey area for magazines
that distributors were supposed to be displaying and selling at
news stands. “I was making sure that Hudson and the like were
putting copies out,” he said. He felt he’d hit “the
glass ceiling” after eight years, so went in to the wholesale
end with Metropolitan News.
“This was a dangerous situation because they were edging into
selling territories already served by other organizations. But I
was a young guy and I didn’t know better than to try to do
the job,” said Blassingame, who gave this exclusive interview
in the ballroom at the Newark International Marriott where sound
men were setting up for the clothes designer’s competition
Blassingame is sponsoring.
Blassingame did the work that put him in possible conflict with
some rough people because he’d concluded that “if you’re
going to go forward that’s what you have to do – life’s
a risk.”
In the meantime, he was meeting people in the industry and learning
both sides of the coin – distribution and wholesale. He next
worked in a management position for Disticor, a Canadian operation
hoping to make inroads in the U.S. Their major publication was “Hockey
News.”
“But we also tried our hand at a (sexually explicit) magazine
we called ‘Rustler,” relates Blassingame, “until
we got a phone call from Larry Flynt (publisher of “Hustler”)
who told us to cease and desist. So we did.
“He only had to call me one time,” adds Blassingame.
Blassingame said that he got the company to earnings up from $270,000
a month to half a million, but when a higher level position with
the company opened up, “they brought in another guy.”
At that point, Blassingame says “I started my own business.”
He offers this advice to young people starting out: “the key
is having determination and dedication. Without them, you don’t
have longevity.”
Raised in Roselle, one of eight children, Blassingame praises his
mother for his strong upbringing. “We were her life. I learned
dedication from her,” he said, adding that all of the brothers
and sisters have led productive lives.
”None of her kids had a problem with the law, and we were
able to show our appreciation to her before she passed at age 83,”
noting that he bought her a house.
Blassingame’s magazines could be sleazy but as you leaf past
the scantily dressed gorgeous women and men, you realize the content
veers more toward the wholesome. He describes his “Hype Hair”
as an “Essence” sort of magazine but with coverage about
man/woman relationships as well as tips on how to get ahead in business
and keep your health up.
The same is true of “Black Men” and “Today’s
Black Women.”
The magazines also have entry forms for the series of competitions
Blassingame runs, including The Black Man of the Year. On page 82
of the 110 of the Oct./Nov. issue of “Today’s Black
Women,” there is a profile of last year’s winner, Raphael
S. Smith, a firefighter from Cleveland, Ohio. He is also a personal
trainer as the full length photograph of him dressed in fashionable
slacks and a silk vest suggests. His chief virtue, however, and
probably what won him the title, is his community work which includes
free fitness consultations, a dietary program he’s devised
that he gives out at the gym where he works out, and volunteering
for a program out of his station which gives children school supplies.
Blassingame, who takes great pride in promoting good works and accomplishments
of young black men, also runs a competition where black women nominate
a hero who is a friend or family member. The current winner who
attends college in Florida brought his mother and sister South with
him to share his small apartment rather than put up with the father’s
abusive ways. “His mother sent in that story,” said
Blassingame.
Blassingame writes a From The Publisher column for his “Black
Men” magazine which in the most recent issue urged the black
community to work toward re-enfranchising people whose felony convictions
had lost them the right to vote. His argument promotes voting as
a way for the African American community to regain a command with
politicians which he feels has been lost. “We owe it to ourselves
to vigorously defend the rights of all citizens to vote,”
he writes.
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