One of the things I had to do to stay in publishing was establish a partnership that had the human and financial resources I needed. The magazine, with a paid circulation of 85,000 readers, has been profitable since 1996, and its advertising pages grew 42 percent between 1997 and 1998. Even success, however, brings its own issues. When appealing to an audience that has for years been shut out of mainstream media, publishers must consider cultural authenticity. Omar Wasow, a partner with CommunityConnect and a founder of New York Online, a community site with a largely African-American audience, says it's a common concern.
Venture capitalists argue that compromise is inevitable.
It's hard to mix capitalism and socialism. You usually end up with lousy businesses. Reynolds found that having a mainstream media partner didn't compromise the cultural authenticity of his product. We went into it truly as partners. Each partner has to have respect for the other's strengths and weaknesses, because at the end of the day we want to have a great product.