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Sunday, August 19 11:03 PM |
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CODE Deciphered: Past, present and future!
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Larry Flynt Publications, as well as the whole Larry Flynt empire, is undergoing a restructuring of sorts, and CODE Magazine, along with several other titles and holdings (including LFP headquarters in Beverly Hills) have been put up on the block for a rumored price tag of around 8 million dollars. So what’s in the future for CODE magazine and the HNIC, Editor-in Chief Eugene Robinson? I sat down with him and he spoke on LFP, the sexual orientation of magazines, as well as the history and future of CODE Magazine.
What were you doing before CODE?
I've been a journalist since 1977. In the Reagan years, I was writing for defense industry publications about defense electronics. I ended up editing stuff for a Ziff Davis launch, but it folded after awhile. So I started freelancing, writing stuff for GQ, Raygun and a bunch of music magazines in Europe. I got tired of being broke, though, and went back to writing in-house stuff for large corporations: Intel, Nikon, Apple and so on. I was at Apple doing their web site when I got a call from CODE. And I wondered if I really wanted to be that broke again, writing for a magazine. But I could tell from the outset that it was something cool. CODE is a very different type of men's magazine, it's a very different type of style magazine, and it's a different type of magazine for African Americans. So here I am.
What was the impetus for CODE?
Well, I was the third or fourth person hired, and there had already been some market research before I came on board. And through the research, it was revealed that 42% of GQ Magazine's readers were minorities. Now that 42% could have been any minority-blacks, Latinos, Asians -but 42% of the readership was non-white. And behind that, we thought that there was room to succeed where others had failed.
So is CODE closing shop?
Ah, no I would not say that. I would say that CODE is in the process of being acquired.
How will this change CODE as we know it?
The purchase should include the CODE brain-trust, that is all the people involved in making CODE Magazine what it is so in a very practical sense, it will not change the magazine at all, except for the fact that we will change addresses.
When celebrities try to branch off into the magazine industry, sometimes that synergy works well, ie Oprah’s O Magazine, Martha Stewart’s Living. But sometimes it fails or just limps along miserably: JFK’s George and Puffy Comb’s Notorious come to mind . . .
Well, first of all, the thing is, anyone buying CODE should appreciate the magazine as it stands now, and the seasoned professionals that have guided it thus far. Now, I think if they come in and start making large changes, I'd think that was a big mistake. And that could happen, and if it does then I think you will see an exodus. I'm hoping the buyers understand that if it isn’’t broke don’’t fix it, and clearly the award-winning -CODE machine- we’ve won 4 Maggies, and 1 Ozzie-isn’’t broke.
Can we deduce from LFP’s sell of CODE Magazine that it wasn’t doing well financially?
Nah. In fact, that's probably the furthest thing from the truth. My uninformed guess is that the sale has less to do with the idea that the magazine was not doing well, but more to do with the fact that LFP is changing its corporate profile all across the board, trying to get back to it’s core market. CODE was exactly where it was supposed to be financially. Look, for any magazine CODE’s age to have any profitability, any profitable issues, is significant-and CODE had no fewer than four of them. So finances were not a problem - ad pages were not a problem, no more than they were for anyone else. The problem isn't the world not being ready for what we were cooking. The problem is much less dramatic and much less exciting than people are think: they need the cash. Which is very simple and something I understand completely. I've been at other launches and been through magazines being bought, sold and folded and this, like our time at LFP is totally mellow and I have, seriously, not a bad thing to say about 99 % of the people at LFP, who I think are great folks that it should be reminded here, did something that no one else was stepping up to do.
What about the idea that CODE is really a gay magazine in butch drag?
Well, most men’s magazines in America are really women’s magazines in disguise, I believe. The fact is, that in America, women consume most printed material, with the possible exception of newspapers. That’s why Oprah’s magazine had the largest debut of any magazine in the history of the world. Men are writing themselves out of the publishing equation by not reading and what Code was doing was trying to a male publication that was unapologetically male AND complex versus the unapologetically male and simple approach of a Maxim. But in regards to gayness I shouldn't even grace that question with a response because if the level of discourse in the black community has now been reduced to the sexual orientation of a MAGAZINE than god help us all. But, I think I addressed that question best in my last sex column . . .for me its like the question “Have you now or have you ever been a communist,” you know? And I think that the guys that are having problems with Code's supposed gayness are struggling mightily with their own sexual preference issues, haha, so do with that what you will. But like I said I think that men’s magazine that put women on the cover really show a simplistic understanding of how it is that men and women work, y’know? They all seem to borrow a page from the same playbook, and that play-book says that scantily clad women sell, and they may be true. But part of the aesthetic we're defining is a return to content--plus it would have been too easy to have a Flynt publication with a half-naked Jada Pinkett on the cover, and we just weren’t gonna do that. To me, that isn’t interesting editorially or otherwise, and that gut feeling is my guiding light; Namely, is it interesting? Does it interest me? I might stand at the airport and thumb through a magazine because it has a woman on the cover, but I ain’t buyin’’ no magazine just because it has a woman on the cover. C’’mon . . .
What's changed about CODE since you became Editor-In-Chief?
Well, there was a civil war at CODE in the early days, and you had two factions: one faction that envisioned the magazine as “upscale”-I don't know what that word means-and then you had the people that envisioned the magazine as “hip.” I don't know what hip means either, except that perhaps it means more progressive. So, in finding its feet, the magazine went through some changes that largely hinged on what kind of America you were living in...in our America, there is no excuse for non-performance and adversity forms the background, not the foreground, against which true talent will out. The other way of thinking about America, that it's a place where a black man will never get ahead no matter what, was just a little too old school for our tastes. My father didn't march so that his son could be sitting here almost 40 years later complaining about not being able to succeed. I consider this a debt that has to be paid and we're paying it, brother. But in any case the paradigm has shifted, and I think you can entertain and elevate at the same time. The folks that thought we lost edge and were somehow emasculated weren't seeing that 90 % of the successful brothers out there are comfortably post-victim in their approach to the world. Which means that they comfortably leave the ball-grabbing, scowling bad boy shit to the youngsters. Code just had a big super bowl event in Tampa and there wasn't one pro baller in there, some of whom have been in Code, who fit that description either. Sometimes it's the case that you don't have to flex to show what you got you know. Haha, like when Code and Kevin Powell were parting ways and he said to me on the phone, "well I'll being seeing YOU somewhere" as almost a threat. My response was "and I hope you'll come up and say Hi." We're just trying to change some of the old ways of thinking, that's all.
Worst-case scenario: CODE falls off. Will this be a case of: Be careful when you wish for a thoughtful urban publication, because you might get it, but not? Will that be the object lesson?
I don’t think so. I think if ads and subscriptions were low, then there would be a lesson. If people didn’t want to advertise with us, then maybe. But CODE is competitive with magazines like Esquire in terms of ad content and ad quality and book size...with a smaller staff. And we're online to pick up some of the bigger fashion house, like Versace, as well. This magazine is succeeding, and it seems to be on the road toward further success, depending on what the new owners do. If CODE fails . . .I mean, I don’t think there will be a lesson. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, y’know? Y’gotta understand, we’re not the niche publication people think we are, per se. Our readers span across the demographic spectrum. I mean, our Lenny Kravitz issue was our best issue to date, and I’d see women, men-everybody of every shade and social distinction every age-- sporting CODE Magazine in airports and hotels and whatnot. This whole thing about ‘‘urban publications’’ is bullshit-they try andkeep you on the farm with that “niche” thing. We’re talkin’ about ahuge, huge piece of pie, and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. If you wanna talk about the ““niche”” market, let’s talk about how many rap records were sold last year-how much Enyce was sold last year. Then let’s talk about how much cash was generated, and how urbanites bought that stuff. Niche market my ass. Us folks are sitting on top of a goldmine and it's our forgetting that, that's going to break us every time. Dig me?
Interview by Jimi Izrael (jimiizrael@hotmail.com)
Eugene Robison was the editor in chief of CODE magazine: eugener@adobe.com
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