Last week was a busy one at Essence Communications. Time Warner acquired the remaining 51% of the company, which publishes Essence, the leading magazine for black women. The price tag was estimated at over $100 million. In 2000, Time Inc. bought 49% of the company. Last year Essence and Time together launched Suede, a multicultural beauty and fashion magazine that will publish nine issues this year.

Essence made news again by launching a feisty campaign to protest the demeaning image of black women in hip-hop lyrics and videos. Editor in Chief Diane Weathers writes in her January letter to readers, “Black women now have the tragic distinction of being objectified, stereotyped, and dehumanized in so much of Black popular music and lyrics. But it doesn’t have to be this way.”

In a feature entitled “Take Back the Music,” the editors expand on this gutsy declaration. “In videos we see bikini-clad sisters gyrating around fully clothed grinning brothers like Vegas strippers on meth. When we search for ourselves in music lyrics, mix tapes, and DVDs and on the pages of hip-hop magazines, we only seem to find our bare breasts and butts….The damage of this imbalanced portrayal of Black women is impossible to measure. An entire generation of Black girls are being raised on these narrow images… and the message and images are broadcast globally, they have become the lens through which world now sees us. This cannot continue.”

Essence’s beauty and fashion director, Michaela Angela Davis, and a member of the committee charged with overseeing the campaign, told me “In the office we were all grumbling about this. We kept saying it has to change but it isn’t going to change on its own. We have to do something about this.”

Diane Weathers says that the editors were impressed by the protest campaign a group called Dads & Daughters waged against Abercrombie & Fitch when the retailer crossed the line with hypersexual advertising aimed at white suburban teenagers. They were also inspired by the young women at Spelman College who protested a visit from the rapper Nelly, resulting in his cancellation of an appearance.

Ms. Davis says the campaign will continue for a year, with a meeting planned at Spelman in February. There is also a study in the works on how young girls who watch hours of music videos are affected, as well as a report on the economics of the music business. “We have lots of anecdotal information, now we want more data to support the way we all feel.”

By the way, I just had to ask Michaela Angela Davis if she was, as I assumed, named after black power activist Angela Davis. She laughed, “I’m 40 years old. Angela Davis wasn’t famous when I was born. My mother studied in Italy – I was named for Michelangelo!”

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What were the top books and authors of last year? Exactly the same ones that topped the chart the previous year. Publishers Weekly, in a retrospective of the year’s best sellers, found that the star players remained Dan Brown, author of “The Da Vinci Code,” a publishing phenomenon; Mitch Albom, author of “The Five People You Meet In Heaven, ” buoyed by a TV movie; and Rich Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” which has sold 20 million copies.

Thriller writer Dan Brown had an especially remarkable year. He topped the hardcover fiction charts for 31 out of 51 weeks and his back-list best sellers, “Angels & Demons,” “Deception Point,” and” Digital Force, “written before the success of “The Da Vinci Code” dominated the paperback fiction lists. In fact, novels by Mr. Brown had almost 12% of all slots on the hardback fiction lists and almost 20% of the available slots on the paperback lists, an astounding record.

The news was not as good for best-seller regulars such as John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Stephen King, or Danielle Steel. All their books sold fewer copies and had shorter runs on the best-seller lists than in the past.

In nonfiction, the most popular category was politics. Close to 35 new political titles made it onto the weekly lists in 2004. Prior to the election, 40% of the books on the charts were political in nature. Books by Michael Moore, Al Franken, and Fox News pundits Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly battled it out on the charts. Jon Stewart’s satirical “America (The Book)” became the no. 1 best seller of the holiday season even though Wal-Mart refused to stock the book because of a page that features the faces of the nine Supreme Court judges superimposed on naked bodies.

Another book that has remained on the list for a second year is Dr. Arthur Agatston’s “The South Beach Diet.” It dropped off PW’s list for just one week in December – during the height of holiday feasting – but now when most people are trying to lose the pounds they gained from eggnog and Christmas cookies, it is back on.

By the way, in case you think this is the year you are finally going to sit down and write that big best seller, be aware that less than half of 1% of the 175,000 books published annually makes it on a national chart for even one week!

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Adoptive Families, the nation’s leading publication for such families just celebrated its 10th anniversary. To mark the occasion, the magazine released the 2005 version of their “Adoption Guide,” downloadable on the Adoptive Families Web site, which helps walk potential parents through the steps to a successful adoption.

Since its inception, the magazine had grown to a circulation of 100,000. Publisher/editor Susan Caughman, a former Time Magazine staffer and an adoptive mother of two daughters, one born in China, says, “The changes in attitudes about adoption over the last 10 years are nothing short of extraordinary. Not only has there been a dramatic increase in the number of international, foster, and domestic adoptions each year, but families now benefit from increased public support as well as tax benefits and the increased acceptance of both open and transracial adoption.”

Her advice for families interested in adopting children orphaned by the tsunami: “It is best practices after a disaster for children who have lost their parents to stay in their own communities for at least a year. If you are really interested in adopting one of these children, start by finding a good local adoption agency in our country who will guide you through the process. She advises, “Please don’t fly off to Sri Lanka or Indonesia and try to find a child on your own. You really will be doing more harm than good.”