Clarence O. Smith, a Founder of Essence Magazine, Is Dead at 92

Clarence O. Smith, who convinced skeptical mainstream advertisers of the power and worth of the Black female consumer market as a founder of Essence, the first general-circulation magazine directed at Black women, died on April 21. He was 92.

Mr. Smith, who lived in Yonkers, N.Y., died in a hospital after a short illness, his niece Kimberly Fonville Boyd said. She provided no other details.

Essence began publication as a monthly in May 1970 in an era when negative and sometimes hateful stereotypes of Black women were commonplace, said Edward Lewis, who was one of four founders of Essence and who became its chief executive.

“We had to overcome this perception,” he said in an interview. “Clarence suggested that we start telling the story of Black women as strivers.”

Mr. Smith, as the magazine’s president, in charge of advertising and marketing, made the initial pitch to reluctant companies that there were 12 million Black women in the United States who controlled a market worth more than $30 billion, and that the magazine would target 4.2 million of the more affluent among them — women between the ages of 18 and 45 who were urban, educated and had increasing discretionary income.

A confident and charming extemporaneous speaker, Mr. Smith had come well prepared with market research, colleagues said, but his challenge was evident from the outset: The first issue of the magazine carried only 13 pages of advertising, and the second and third issues fared even worse, with just five pages of ads apiece.

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