Angela Burt-Murray Is Out As Editor-In-Chief Of "ESSENCE"

 

Angela Burt-Murray, the editor-in-chief of ESSENCE, is leaving her position with the magazine after five years as its leader.  Get the deets inside....

 

As the leader of the top lifestyle magazine for African American women, Angela Burt-Murray had a very influential role in the lives of African American women.  So why would she walk away from a job like this after only five years? 

That's debatable.  In a meeting with her staff on Friday afternoon, Angela told staffers that she was relocating to Atlanta with her family.  Outside of that, we can only speculate as to why she is moving on.

Most people would say it has something to do with the controversy that flared this summer when Angela appointed a white woman to the key position of fashion director. The hiring of Ellianna Placas, incensed some readers, who argued it was difficult for people of color in mainstream fashion magazines and that ESSENCE should be their domain exclusively.

"It's with a heavy heart that I learned that Essence magazine has engaged a white fashion director," Michaela Angela Davis, a former Essence fashion director and one-time editor in chief of HONEY, wrote on her Facebook page, sparking a lively debate on the topic.

Sheryl Tucker, who took a buyout as an editor-at-large at Time Inc. in 2008, is being brought back to run the magazine on an interim basis.

The fashion director controversy was not mentioned in the official memo from Time Inc.'s Editor-in-Chief John Huey, who praised Angela for her contributions to the magazine, including the Essence Book Club and Essence Music Festival Seminar Series. He said the magazine was "beginning our search for a new editor," though it's rumored her departure had been in the works for weeks.

Source: http://theybf.com/2010/11/06/angela-burt-murray-is-out-as-edtor-in-chief-of-essence

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