Eden Bridgeman started her working life with shifts at Wendy’s and Chili’s—jobs that taught her key classes on a profession path that put her within the driver’s seat of one of the crucial iconic manufacturers in media historical past.
Bridgeman went on from working behind the counter to changing into the CMO of Manna, Inc., a restaurant franchise operator. And in 2021, after her father, the late Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman, purchased EBONY and JET at a chapter public sale in 2020, she took the reins of EBONY.
This fall, EBONY unveiled its 2026 Energy 100 record, a category that stretches from Jay-Z and Byron Allen to iShowSpeed and a STEM child creator, all celebrated at a gala on the Hollywood Palladium beneath the theme “The Tales We Form.” One of many classes, the Junior Bridgeman Enterprise Vanguard, is known as in her father’s honor.
Following the occasion, Bridgeman shared her ideas on management that serves your crew, discovering success within the consideration economic system and defining energy that really makes an influence.
As a youngster, you labored at Wendy’s and Chili’s. What’s one particular behavior or rule from these shifts that you just nonetheless use as a CEO?
One factor I discovered very early is that the buyer experiences the entire enterprise, not your division. If one thing was flawed with an order, the client didn’t care whether or not the error occurred on the register, within the kitchen, or some place else. They merely knew the expertise didn’t meet their expectations. Working in eating places teaches you in a short time that everybody has some accountability for the ultimate end result. Eating places additionally taught me the significance of staying near the enterprise. You study issues from the entrance line that you just can not all the time see in a report.
You had been CMO of a restaurant franchise operator, after which took over an 80-year outdated media model. What stunned you most in regards to the media enterprise?
Actually, what number of companies exist within the media enterprise. Coming from eating places, there have been definitely complexities, however the financial mannequin was comparatively clear. Media has a really completely different ecosystem. You’ve gotten the viewers consuming the product, advertisers funding components of the enterprise, platforms influencing distribution, creators and expertise shaping relevance, know-how affecting discovery, and more and more commerce and experiences creating extra income alternatives. All of these constituencies matter, however they don’t all the time need the identical factor.
That requires a distinct type of self-discipline. One of many greatest classes for me has been that spotlight and income should not the identical factor. A bit of content material can carry out extraordinarily properly culturally and nonetheless not create significant enterprise worth until you may have constructed the best infrastructure round that spotlight.
What practices from the restaurant world do you suppose can apply to success in media?
There are literally fairly just a few. The primary is frequency. Eating places perceive that progress isn’t just about convincing any individual to go to as soon as. The second is consistency. In eating places, model requirements exist as a result of individuals count on a sure expertise each time they stroll by way of the door. Media manufacturers want that very same readability. After which there’s measurement. Restaurant companies are extremely disciplined about understanding efficiency at a granular degree. You recognize what’s promoting, when it’s promoting and the place there are operational issues. I carry that mindset to EBONY as a result of I consider creativity turns into extra highly effective if you perceive its influence.
Your father purchased EBONY and JET at a chapter public sale in 2020. Once you took over in 2021, what had been the primary belongings you mounted or rebuilt?
I are usually cautious with the phrase “mounted,” as a result of it may possibly counsel that every part earlier than you was flawed. That’s not how I view EBONY. We inherited a unprecedented model with generations of cultural fairness, however the enterprise round that model needed to function in a basically completely different media atmosphere. A lot of my focus has been on rebuilding the infrastructure obligatory for EBONY to compete as a contemporary media firm. Which means strengthening how we function, how we promote, how we develop partnerships, how we take into consideration content material and distribution, and the way we measure whether or not the work is producing the outcomes we supposed.
However there was additionally a extra philosophical query that needed to be answered: What does it imply to modernize EBONY with out disconnecting it from what made it necessary within the first place? There are generations of people that have a private relationship with this model. Then there’s a youthful era whose relationship with media, tradition and identification is totally completely different. My accountability just isn’t to decide on between these audiences. It’s to grasp the elemental reality that made EBONY matter traditionally and translate that reality into merchandise, experiences and storytelling that really feel related now. Legacy provides you permission to enter the dialog. Relevance determines whether or not individuals proceed listening.
Are there any management classes or phrases of encouragement out of your father that you consider commonly?
I’d describe it much less as one specific quote and extra as a management philosophy I discovered from my father: the inverted pyramid.
The concept is that management just isn’t about positioning your self on the high with everybody working up towards you. You flip the pyramid the other way up. As a pacesetter, your accountability is to assist the individuals doing the work and ensure they’ve what they have to be profitable.
That has stayed with me as a result of it modifications the way in which you consider management. A title might provide you with authority, however management is de facto about service, accountability and creating the situations for different individuals to succeed.
As CEO, I attempt to keep in mind that my position is to not have each reply or to be the middle of each determination. My accountability is to offer readability round the place we’re going, take away obstacles the place I can, make the tough selections when obligatory, and provides the crew the assist and accountability they should do their finest work.
I feel that philosophy takes on one other layer at EBONY. There’s a accountability to the individuals working to maneuver the enterprise ahead, but additionally to the viewers and group which have trusted this model for generations.
The upper you progress in a company, the extra individuals you might be answerable for serving, not the extra people who find themselves answerable for serving you.
My father led humbly, as a servant chief, and that’s the lesson from him I carry most immediately into how I attempt to lead at this time.
The place do you suppose are the largest alternatives for EBONY and different legacy media manufacturers in at this time’s media panorama?
I feel the largest alternative is to cease defining a media firm primarily by the content material it publishes. Content material will all the time be important, however it may possibly lengthen into unique mental property, experiences, commerce, suggestions, partnerships and new types of distribution. It could actually create alternatives for manufacturers that need real cultural credibility. And it provides us the power to convene communities each digitally and bodily.
I additionally consider there’s important alternative in understanding audiences extra deeply. Our historical past is a gigantic aggressive benefit, however historical past can not turn out to be an excuse for standing nonetheless. Youthful customers should not obligated to like EBONY as a result of their dad and mom or grandparents did. We now have to earn their relationship with the model on their phrases.
If we will mix the belief and cultural authority constructed over generations with the know-how, codecs, distribution and enterprise fashions obtainable at this time, I feel the chance is way bigger than conventional publishing.
The Energy 100 honorees vary from Jay-Z and Byron Allen to iShowSpeed and a STEM child creator. How do you outline “energy”?
I feel energy has turn out to be rather more distributed. Historically, we tended to affiliate energy with establishments: the individual operating the corporate, controlling capital, holding political workplace or deciding who gained entry. These types of energy nonetheless matter enormously. However know-how and social platforms have created fully alternative ways for individuals to construct affect.
A teen can create one thing from their bed room and develop an viewers bigger than many conventional media retailers. A creator can introduce hundreds of thousands of individuals to an concept, product or trigger virtually immediately. An entrepreneur can construct a group with out first receiving permission from a standard gatekeeper.
That modifications the way in which we must always take into consideration energy. For EBONY, I feel energy is in the end in regards to the potential to create significant influence. Are you able to shift a dialog? Are you able to open a door that was beforehand closed? Are you able to construct one thing that creates alternative for different individuals? Are you able to affect how individuals see themselves or what they consider is feasible? Once I take into consideration energy at this time, I’m not solely in who has it, however what they’re doing with it.
Eden Bridgeman started her working life with shifts at Wendy’s and Chili’s—jobs that taught her key classes on a profession path that put her within the driver’s seat of one of the crucial iconic manufacturers in media historical past.
Bridgeman went on from working behind the counter to changing into the CMO of Manna, Inc., a restaurant franchise operator. And in 2021, after her father, the late Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman, purchased EBONY and JET at a chapter public sale in 2020, she took the reins of EBONY.
This fall, EBONY unveiled its 2026 Energy 100 record, a category that stretches from Jay-Z and Byron Allen to iShowSpeed and a STEM child creator, all celebrated at a gala on the Hollywood Palladium beneath the theme “The Tales We Form.” One of many classes, the Junior Bridgeman Enterprise Vanguard, is known as in her father’s honor.
