Changing Times

Under Butch Graves' editorial direction, the magazine has expanded its Lifestyle section and broadened the editorial coverage to reflect the options available to the increasingly affluent and younger Black Enterprise readers. That an increase in copy space has been given over to topics such as fashion, health, and travel is a measure of the increasing success of black executives and entrepreneurs, who have more money, more choices, and higher expectations than any generation of African Americans before them.

Graves Sr. credits his son, who has been with the company since 1988, as the driving force behind the company's increasing role as a major player in the multimedia arena. In addition to the monthly magazine, the Earl Graves Publishing Company, in collaboration with John Wiley & Sons, Inc., publishes Black Enterprise Books, which offer a series of business and general interest books by and about African American professionals and entrepreneurs. The company also produces the "Black Enterprise Keys to a Better Life" report for Clear Channel radio and the "Black Enterprise Business Report" for television. In 1996, Butch Graves led the launch of the magazine's online companion, blackenterprise.com. Today, it claims over 200,000 registered users and more than 450,000 visitors per month. The site offers interactive tools and resources to help users create and follow through on their personal wealth building strategies.

Regular Attractions

In addition to offering articles from the African American perspective on business and investment issues, Black Enterprise also presents news and political items that uniquely affect its readership. The November 2005 issue, for example, examined the devastating results of Hurricane Katrina on black businesses in the Gulf.

While feature articles often highlight prominent black businessmen and businesswomen, the magazine's regular departments focus on a wide variety of topics, from career advice to reviews of the latest high-tech tools to enhance productivity.

Black Enterprise's regular monthly sections include:

In 2002, the company launched Teenpreneur. Aimed at youths aged 13 to 18, Teenpreneur is published quarterly and packaged as a special editorial section within the pages of Black Enterprise.