Ebony Magazine Website Vanishes From Internet

Ebony Magazine Covers (Credit: Ebony.com)

The websites for Ebony an Jet magazines are suddenly gone from the web.

The iconic publications, which were once required reading in African-American homes, have been besieged by financial problems, money disputes and layoffs for years. Now they appear to be gone for good.

Ebony.com has a message on the website saying, “The site you were looking for couldn’t be found.” Jetmag.com is also missing.

Ebony magazine is offline
The Ebony magazine website is currently offline.

Related Story: Historic Ebony and Jet Photo Archive Sells for $30 Million

The Chicago Crusader, an Illinois publication covering the African-American community, first reported details of the websites going offline earlier this month.

“Sources tell the Crusader that Ebony had not paid its remaining five-member digital web staff,” the publication wrote. “They kept the website going with several stories since June 2019. At that time, several media outlets reported that Ebony Media closed for good by laying off its remaining staff members after they walked out when the company couldn’t make payroll.”

Chicago-based Johnson Publishing sold Ebony and Jet in 2016, and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in April 2019.

The Crusader said it requested information from Clear View Group, which purchased the magazines, but got “no answer.”

Texas-based Clear View announced last year that it was suspending the print edition on May 24, 2019. Just before the magazine shut down, axed employees said they are “rubbing pennies together” to pay their bills.

In July, the photo archive of Ebony and Jet magazines chronicling African-American life in the 20th century was auctioned off for $30 million. The historic collection was previously appraised at $46 million, but Ebony was unable to sell it for that much.

The more than 4 million images and negatives were acquired by a group of foundations. The photo collection is made up of images documenting everything from the civil rights movement to the lives of iconic figures such as Aretha Franklin, Prince, Eartha Kitt, Martin Luther King Jr., and husband and wife acting team Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.

Ebony was founded by the late John H. Johnson and published its first issue in November 1945. The magazine would have celebrated its 75th anniversary this year.