The African-American Book Publishing Authority 


COMPANY PROFILES


Ken Smikle
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

Ken Smikle, president and founder of Target Market News, and editor and publisher of its publications, is considered one of the leading authorities on marketing, advertising and media directed to the African-American market.

The company's trade publication, Target Market News, covers business activities in advertising, marketing and media targeted to black consumers. Its annual report, The Buying Power of Black America, analyzes how African-American consumers spend billions of dollars in hundreds of categories of products and services.

The company also distributes new and information on the latest developments in marketing and media through its website, www.targetmarketnews.com. Target Market News also hosts the annual African-American Research and Advertising Summit, a two-day conference for senior executives engaged in marketing to the black consumer market.

In March 2006, the company acquired Black Issues Book Review, but that was not firm’s first involvement in the book publishing industry. Target Market News is regularly cited by the news media for its insights on African-American book purchases. In 2001, the firm was commissioned by the Book Industry Study Group to conduct research on black book purchases. The subsequent report, “The African-American Book Buyers Study,” remains one of the few available studies on the African-American book market.

Prior to starting Target Market News in 1988, Smikle worked as an editor and publisher for a number of periodicals. He was senior editor for Black Enterprise, the leading magazine chronicling African-Americans in business, and was arts editor for the New York Amsterdam News.

Smikle presently resides in Chicago with his wife, Renee Ferguson, an award-winning investigative reporter at WMAQ-TV, and son, Jason.


Susan McHenry
Editorial Director

For 25 years now, veteran magazine journalist Susan McHenry has been a key editor at pioneering magazines that have identified and captured untapped reader sensibilities among African-Americans and among women at large. McHenry is founding editor of the bimonthly Black Issues Book Review, and at present, consulting editor. She is also a contributing editor and writer for ESSENCE magazine, for which she has worked in various capacities since 1997. In previous years, she helped launch Emerge magazine and held pivotal staff positions at Ms., Working Woman, and Quarterly Black Review of Books.

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, McHenry earned a B.A. with honors in American history and literature from Radcliffe College, Harvard University and a master’s degree in literature from Boston University. She was also a 1987-88 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business and Economics Journalism at Columbia University.


Clarence V. Reynolds
Managing Editor

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Clarence began his journalism career as a researcher and reporter for Discover magazine, after working in corporate public relations. Reynolds has since worked as a copy editor and production assistant for numerous publications, including Family Life, Healthy Living, B Smith With Style, as well as with Time Inc, Custom Publishing, the Working Woman Network, Deloitte & Touche and several publishing houses in New York.

In 2001, Reynolds joined the staff at Black Issues Book Review as copy editor, book reviewer and staff writer. Reynolds is currently working on a collection of short stories.

Return to homepage