In planning for our Race issue, we often fretted over the predominant whiteness of the TONY edit staff. While we don't feel this prevents us from addressing issues of race or serving a diverse readership, it did lead me to wonder how—or if—I would do my job differently if I were a person of color, or I were programming our Web site for an audience of color.

To explore these ruminations further, I contacted Eric Easter, chief of digital strategy for ebonyjet.com, and he was generous enough to field a few questions about race, media and Rick Steves' Europe.

Let me start out broadly. Why do we need ethnically focused media in the first place? Isn't the mainstream media good enough for everyone?
I think there are black magazines for the same reasons that there are women's magazines—people want to see themselves and see their perspectives represented. There's a need for affirmation. For example, one of the most popular things in Jet, and one of the top searched-for items on our website, is our wedding announcements. We've been doing it in the magazine since 1951 and it’s a real form or recognition in our community. Black people still send this stuff to The New York Times and Town & Country, but nobody mentions anything to you until they've seen it in Jet. My wife and I were in Town & Country and nobody says anything about it, yet I've had people stop me on the street years later and say, "Weren't you in Jet?"

What about for more basic news and information? Why couldn't I, as a black man, get my news from CNN, my sports from ESPN, my fashion from GQ, and be content with that?
Well, you could. And a lot of black men do. It's just about perspective. For us, a story doesn't have to be about black people; it's about the perspective we can bring to it that makes it relevant to our readers. We don't have a news-gathering operation, and there aren't a lot of black media organizations that do. There's just not money for it. What we're doing on our site is more second-day journalism. So there's this primary news, which is sort of an objective "this happened," but what does that mean to your community? When I was in journalism school, the definition of why people read news was to know what decisions to make about their daily lives. The lives of black people tend to have different dynamics.

Are there stories that come to mind where the black perspective was not well represented in mainstream media?
A lot of people thought the Katrina story was one. Oddly enough, I think that Katrina was one of those stories where everyone did the right thing in media.

I'm glad you said that because that's the one recent story I can think of where it seemed like the media tried hard to tell the black community's side of things.
The complaints there were more about follow-up. A lot of people put demand on black publications afterward to keep the coverage going and continue to give voices to the people suffering. There's also pressure to weigh in on the the Michael Vick story. People are saying, "Hey, what are you guys going to do on the Michael Vick thing?"

What are you going to do on the Michael Vick thing?
Maybe nothing. I don't consider it as big of a deal as everyone else does. I'm trying to get out of the whole celebrity coverage, actually.

But are users writing in and asking about it?
No, it's anecdotal. Folks on the street will have conversations with me about it. The Jena Six, now that's a story. We do get letters about that.

I don't know that story.
Some black students in Louisiana got a gun pulled on them by somebody white. They took the gun away from the guy, and then got arrested for gun theft; now they're on trial. It's just a really bizarre story, and it's one of those things that the black community is demanding that people talk about. It's kind of a "white woman missing" thing. Black people always ask, what about the black folks who have gone missing? There's an outcry about those issues.

I see. What other media tendencies piss black folks off?
Here's a perfect example. Gawker recently did a whole thing on the Hamptons, and it includes pictures of these comically ironic people from that area. One of the people turns out to be Earl Graves, the publisher of Black Enterprise. He's got these mutton chops, which are his signature, but clearly the writer has no idea who he is—just calls him "dude." You know, "Dude, what's up with the mutton chops?" Then if you read the comments, halfway down somebody's like, "Wait, aren't you a media website in New York? This is one of the most iconic media people in the city and you had no idea who he is." So there's this sense in the black community that anybody black can tell you who Tinsley Mortimer or Paris Hilton is, but here you've got this multimillionaire publisher of a high-visibility magazine, and white folks who are writing about media have no idea who this guy is. Those kinds of stories, about the need to affirm the achievement of our community—we get thousands of emails about that.

You're talking about the need for more success stories. What about the coverage of thornier issues? A lot of media people would grumble that you can't critically examine racial issues without being branded a bigot. They say the media has become too PC.
I think people are generally uncomfortable with the issue of race, period. And with folks like Imus, the bottom line is, you're not funny, man. Howard Stern says crazy stuff all the time, but he's relatively funny, so he kind of gets the funny pass.

At TONY, we try to serve a diverse readership. Do you think we succeed?
I think you guys do a fine job. I can't speak for the entire black community and what tools they use, but for travel and entertainment, I don't go out and look for the black stuff. I only look for what resonates to me. I wish I could say that there was a key to it. When I read Time Out, I feel like the people writing it enjoy the things I do. It's just about sensibility, which is also why I wouldn't pick up Frommer's or Budget Travel.

Why not?
Black folks have the same issues with those publications as they do with—what's that show? Rick Steves' Europe?—I hate that show. You know, he stays with these families all over Germany and black people watch that and say, "Yeah right, I'm going to find some family in the German hinterlands and they're going to let me stay in their house?" And they might, but people look for some sort of hint. If all I see are pictures of white people holding up beer steins, that's only going make me realize that I'm black when I'm just trying to chill and travel. A lot of that comfort level comes from what you telegraph with photos. I look at who's enjoying these activities, and whether or not they look like me.

It's interesting you say that. Ever since I've been in magazines, I feel like there's always been an informal policy that if you do a photo shoot, you need to have the one black model in there. In a certain sense I suppose that's respectful and inclusive, but it often feels like tokenism.
But it works. When I see a photo of a nightclub, I can tell when it's not for me. It does send a message when you see people in casual pictures of bars and nightclubs that look like you and look like they're hip. That matters. A lot of times you get the gist in how people are dressed. Or what the writer says the music is.

So it's photos and also cultural references.
Exactly. I don't think it's any different for any demographic. They want to see themselves before they feel completely comfortable with something. I mean, I'm getting hit with comments that our site doesn't feel like it's for women. Women say, "Where's the style?" and I'm like, "Do I gotta put handbags on the home page to get women?" But I guess from their point of view the site doesn't feel inclusive, so I have to put in more of that bullshit.