Rolling out publisher and CEO Munson Steed was recently profiled as part of the BlackEnterprise.com Cool Jobs series, which offers a peek into the nuts and bolts, perks and salaries behind enjoyable careers.
Here’s the article in part:
To say that Munson Steed oversees a media empire would not be an exaggeration.
CEO of the Steed Media Group, a multimedia company that includes flagship publication, Rolling Out— the largest chain of African-American-owned weekly newspapers in the country—-he’s literally got his finger on the pulse of black urban America.
But more than that, Steed, whose conglomerate has included magazines (Direct Wire), video and music programs (F.M. Video and Today’s Jazz), comic books (G-Force), Websites (Blackbookstore.com), and a record label (Soulestial Elements), considers himself a visionary who is focused on building and maintaining a brand that is entertaining, politically relevant and civic-minded.
For him this means forming strategic partnerships with other highly successful brands to help corner the market space.
“We’ve got some phenomenal partnerships with Ford, CBS, McDonald’s, American Airlines and other big companies,” Steed starts of his “360” print, digital, online and mobile platforms. “[Working with brands of this caliber] allows you to operate outside of the box, utilizing your relationship with the community so that your brand in its identity is part of how you communicate with the world. Whether it’s about acquiring a new skill set, making an acquisition, gaining community recognition, or the sharing and bridging of partnerships between services and technology, that’s what transpires as you build brands that are authentic,” explains the Morehouse graduate, who cut his entrepreneurial teeth while he was still in college, launching a retail and entertainment business specializing in promotions, as well the sales of T-shirts and other college paraphernalia.
Read this story in it’s entirety on Black Enterprise.
