From Representation to Ownership: A Call for Courage in Media Leadership
DéVon Christopher Johnson Speaks at the Magna Equity Upfront 2024 | Image courtesy of BOMESI
Leadership in the media has never been easy. It takes courage to look at a system built on inequity and say, “We’re not going to play small anymore.”
It takes even more courage to chart a path where representation is not just about being seen, but about ownership; about who profits, who hires, who calls the shots. That’s the difference between surface-level diversity and true equity.
For consumers of diverse content and platforms owned by those traditionally ignored by the big agencies , it's a boundary we can no longer afford to wait to establish. We can't have representation without having the infrastructure in place to make it possible.
When you scratch beneath the surface, power isn't just who signs the checks, but who gets to hold the mic, the news desk, the platform, and the revenue streams that make it possible.
Why It Matters: The Business Case for Equity
When we talk about representation in the media, we've long enough settled on optics. Were there diverse creatives working on the campaign? Were there people of color on the panel? Those are wonderful, but those are not enough. Leadership is courageous because it means that we must move beyond symbolic moments to structural investment.
Black consumers are worth more than $1.8 trillion in consumer purchasing power, and Black-owned media receive only 2 percent of every ad dollar spent.
Real leadership realizes that equitable investment is not philanthropy. It's about staying in business. Choosing not to work with emerging media platforms that represent new voices and new consumers, you are choosing not to grow your business.
Black consumers are not niche. They're a requirement for the long-term sustainability of brands today.
Representation has implications, and minority-owned media reach into communities that are continuously underrepresented and misrepresented by the mainstream media.
Ownership provides security. Without ownership equity, representation is short-term and subject to the whims of a changing budget or trend.
Legacy to Future: A Movement, Not a Moment
This fight is not new. In 1827, the first Black-owned newspaper in America was Freedom's Journal, which declared, "We wish to plead our own cause.
Too long have others spoken for us," and that work continues today. From Ebony and Essence to Black Enterprise, pioneers taught us that ownership and voice change culture. They built legacies despite.
Now BOMESI is continuing where they began, building with intention what generations before them built by default; creating an opportunity for those legacy six to scale to hundreds.
Bomesi Co-Founders DéVon Christopher Johnson
& Rhonesha Byng at Magna Equity Upfront 2024
It’s not just trying to survive in a system that undervalues us, it’s building infrastructure, creating deal flow, and ensuring the next generation of publishers doesn’t have to start from scratch. That’s what courageous leadership looks like: refusing to let history repeat itself.
Past pioneers fought for space while they demanded the right to exist in a landscape designed to exclude them. Leaders of today cannot balance. They demand equal pay for equal reach, sustainable investment, and infrastructure.
Tomorrow's leaders must inherit to fight, not merely to fight. They must inherit scalable businesses, battle-tested ecosystems, and mentorship.
The Cost of Playing It SafE
It's easy enough for businesses and marketers to claim they're diverse, place an ad on Black History Month, or partner with some Black influencers.
Playing it safe doesn't shift power, though. Playing it safe doesn't change the bottom line for diverse-owned media outlets who are trying to pay employees, build their platforms, and play in a trillion-dollar market.
Leadership is moving forward where the easy option is performative. Leadership is placing insertion orders to Black media on the same terms you pay legacy media. It is from "checking the box" to "changing the game."
Performative investment stops progress and token campaigns are splashy, not sustained.
Fearless investment builds ecosystems, at the same time generational deals and fair valuations power generational impact.
Silence is what makes inequality real. Inaction is a choice, a choice to allow structural inequalities to remain in place.
Courage in Practice: What It Looks Like
Leadership does not have to be book-based. It can happen in boardrooms, budgets, and business models. It is real spenders of hard cash, not hype.
It is collaborative giving and mentoring that breaks insidious business habits, and also publishers aligning, creating collective strength that cannot be silenced.
At BOMESI, we’ve seen firsthand how courage transforms possibility into infrastructure. With more than 300 Black-owned publishers and 2,500 diverse-owned publishers in our ecosystem, we’re proving that representation plus ownership creates results at scale:
Accelerator programs give publishers the coaching and tools they need to grow beyond survival.
Ad networks connect outlets directly with paid campaigns, cutting through gatekeepers.
Advocacy work takes equity conversations past hashtags into boardrooms, policy rooms.
So, Now What?
If half the goal is representation without ownership, then ownership without sustainability is shaky ground. So leadership is more than good slogans and intentions. We have to build equity into the model of media.
The second wave of this movement is not charity, it's unabashedly building successful, sustainable businesses with individuals who represent and look like us. It's letting the power of representation build wealth, power, and long-term sustainability.
And so what does that do for leaders (publishers, advertisers, policymakers) trying to get it right? It means courage is no longer an option. It means:
Publishers need to demand fair pay and not compromise their worth.
Advertisers need to make Black-owned media central business allies, not ancillary businesses.
Communities must keep supporting, growing, and holding leaders accountable.
Representation Without Ownership Is Incomplete
Media ownership power of representation exists. It's the difference between being seen and held up for display, between being heard and heard on one's own terms, between living on someone else's terms and building one of one's own.
Leadership takes courage. Courage to invest to redistribute, to build infrastructures that will be used for more years than our own lifetimes.
Together, we can do that and create a media environment where ownership is the norm, not the exception.
The time to make the decision on courage is now. Not tomorrow, not when budget cycles go through, not when seasonal reminders come in. Now.
DéVon Christopher Johnson is the founder of the BOMESI, a movement uniting over 300 Black-owned and 2,500 diverse-owned publishers. Through advocacy, infrastructure building, and ad spend redistribution, BOMESI drives equity and sustainability across the media industry. Learn more at bomesi.org.
