November 1 in business history: a 25,000-copy first run, four letters, and a 3% deficit
Three gates built on a 1 November: Ebony's 25,000-copy first run in 1945, the four letters that decided where a film could be shown in 1968, and the five tests that decided who could use the euro in 1993.
On three separate 1 Novembers, a gate was built and then had to be lived with.
In 1945 a magazine printed 25,000 copies. In 1968 an industry issued four letters. In 1993 a treaty fixed five numbers.
The magazine's advertising pages, the industry's four letters and the treaty's arithmetic all began as decisions by people already in the business. Each ended up deciding who could reach a customer, an audience or a currency.
The issue that sold out before the advertisers arrived
Ebony's first issue went on sale on 1 November 1945 in Chicago. Its print run was 25,000 copies, and it sold out. 1
John H. Johnson had started a magazine three years earlier with $500 borrowed against his mother's furniture. 2 Ebony followed the format of Life and was written for Black readers. 1
Demand was easy. By the early 1950s circulation had passed half a million. 3
Advertising was the constraint. Johnson spent years persuading large companies that a Black consumer market existed and was worth buying. 2
The argument worked, and circulation followed. In November 1985, at its fortieth anniversary, Ebony was printing 1.7 million copies. 4
Marketers in the 1980s estimated that the magazine reached more than 40 per cent of Black adults in the United States. 1 In 1982 Johnson became the first Black American on the Forbes 400. 1
Then the gate changed hands. Johnson Publishing sold Ebony and Jet in 2016, the print edition stopped in May 2019, and the company filed for Chapter 7 that April. 4
The photographs went to auction: nearly four million prints, slides and negatives covering 75 years. 5
A group of five foundations bought the archive in July 2019 for $30 million and gave it to the Smithsonian's African American history museum and the Getty Research Institute. 5
The two titles came out of a separate bankruptcy in July 2020 and were bought for $14 million that December. 4
The pictures fetched more than twice what the magazines did.
Decision mirror: Nielsen's January 2026 study projects Black buying power above $2 trillion in 2026, using Selig Center estimates. 6
Sixty-seven per cent of the Black consumers it surveyed said they pay more attention to advertising in media that reflects their culture. Fifty-six per cent prefer to buy from brands that advertise on programmes reflecting their culture. 6
Seventy-one per cent said they feel misrepresented in media, and 70 per cent said they stop buying from brands they see devaluing their community. 6
The market Johnson had to argue into existence is now a measured number, counted in trillions. The company that found it sold for $14 million.
Four letters that decided where a film could be shown
The American film rating system took effect on 1 November 1968 with four ratings: G, M, R and X. 7
Three bodies ran it — the studios' association, the theatre owners and the importers. Only films that opened in the United States after that date were covered. 7
It replaced the Production Code, which the studios had enforced from 1934 and had largely stopped enforcing by 1968. 8
Self-regulation was the older habit. Legislators in 37 states introduced almost a hundred censorship bills in 1921, and the studios responded in 1922 by hiring their own censor. 8
Jack Valenti, who had run the studios' association since June 1966, built the replacement. 9
The letters moved. M became GP and then PG in 1972. PG-13 arrived on 1 July 1984, after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins both went out as PG. 7
X was replaced in 1990 by NC-17. X carried no trademark, so anyone could use it, and pornographers did; Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange wore the same letter and were widely taken for pornography. 9
The letters decide distribution. Most cinemas refuse to book NC-17 or unrated films, and the rating restricts advertising. 7
In 2010 The Weinstein Company appealed an NC-17 on Blue Valentine and got an R for the same cut. 7
One of the 75 top exhibitors refused to use the system at the start: Walter Reade. 7
Decision mirror: Australia's minimum-age law for social media took effect on 10 December 2025. By 16 January 2026 the government said more than 4.7 million under-16 accounts had been deactivated, removed or restricted. 10
The regulator's first compliance report came at the end of March. Thirty-one per cent of parents surveyed said their child still had an account, against 49.7 per cent before the law. 11
Of the children who held Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok accounts before 10 December, about 70 per cent still had access. 11
Five platforms went under investigation, with a maximum penalty of A$49.5 million, about US$33.9 million. 11
A rating could be argued with, and a re-cut could buy an R. A statute carries a fine, and the fine is worth whatever the compliance rate says.
The tests a country had to pass to use the currency
The Treaty on European Union was agreed in December 1991 and signed at Maastricht on 7 February 1992. It was written to take effect on 1 January 1993. 12
It took effect on 1 November 1993. Germany ratified last, after its Constitutional Court ruled the treaty compatible with the Basic Law on 12 October 1993. 12
The delay had a cause. Danish voters rejected the treaty on 2 June 1992 by 50.7 to 49.3 per cent, then approved it in a second vote on 18 May 1993 with 56.7 per cent. 12
France approved it with 50.8 per cent in September 1992. Jacques Delors, who had chaired the committee behind the currency plan, read that margin as the end of Europe's "phase of benign despotism". 12
The treaty created the European Union and its citizenship, and set out the central bank and the route to one currency. 1213
It also wrote the entry tests, and those outlived the rest. A country joining the euro clears five thresholds. 14
Inflation no more than 1.5 percentage points above the three best-performing member states. A deficit no more than 3 per cent of GDP, and debt no more than 60 per cent. 14
Two years inside the exchange-rate mechanism without devaluing, and long-term interest rates no more than 2 percentage points above the same three. 14
Eleven countries started the currency on 1 January 1999. Croatia joined as the twentieth member on 1 January 2023. 13
Decision mirror: Bulgaria became the twenty-first member on 1 January 2026, at 1.95583 leva to the euro. 15
That figure had been the lev's central rate in the exchange-rate mechanism since 10 July 2020, and the Council approved the change on 8 July 2025. 15
The rule outlived the governments that wrote it. The thresholds set in 1992 fixed the rate Bulgaria entered at in 2026.
Three questions for the day
- Who is on the other side of a gate you control this week, and what does standing there cost them?
- What have you counted as proof of demand, and who still needs convincing?
- Which rule are you relying on that a future board, buyer or government can reprice?
References
- 1
- 2John H. Johnson (1918–2005)
encyclopediaofarkansas.net
- 3
- 4Ebony (magazine)
en.wikipedia.org
- 5Johnson Publishing Company Archive Resource Guide: FAQs
libguides.getty.edu
- 6
- 7Motion Picture Association film rating system
en.wikipedia.org
- 8Hays Code
en.wikipedia.org
- 9Jack Valenti
en.wikipedia.org
- 10
- 11
- 12Maastricht Treaty
en.wikipedia.org
- 13Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)
ecb.europa.eu
- 14Convergence criteria
ecb.europa.eu
- 15Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026
ecb.europa.eu
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