Award-winning editor, Shonda McClain finds enjoyment in giving back to her community. She is the editor of the Tribune Magazine, a publication that addresses topics of interest in the African-American community, and editor of the Sojourner, a quarterly, African-American visitors guide to Philadelphia.
Both publications are products of The Philadelphia Tribune, the nation’s oldest, continuously published newspaper, which has served the community since 1884.
Shonda is an entrepreneur, the founder and CEO of Write Style Editorial Services, which she launched in 2015.
As the magazine editor, McClain oversees the Tribune Magazine’s successful publication of “Philadelphia’s Most Influential African Americans.” Under her leadership, the magazine expanded to include “10 People Under 40 to Watch” and “Movers and Shakers,” making it one of the most sought after publications in the city. She was also instrumental in putting together the Tribune’s inaugural “Women on the Move” special edition, which debuted in 2009. It is now called “Women Achieving” and highlights outstanding African American women in corporate America.
In addition to her magazine duties, McClain is the Entertainment, Lifestyles/Leisure, and Learning Key editor at the Tribune, all of which have been awarded for journalistic excellence under her leadership by the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). She joined the staff of the Philadelphia Tribune in 1995 as the New Jersey Learning Key coordinator. She later served as the entertainment reporter in 1996 before being promoted to magazine editor in 1997.
Earlier, McClain honed her skills as a journalist at The Indianapolis Recorder,
where she worked as a general assignment and entertainment reporter from 1993 to 1995. While there, she worked with their youth internship program, serving as the journalism and writing seminars coordinator, where she taught and mentored junior high and high school students.
The newspaper section that her students produced was named best youth section by the NNPA for two years straight. She serves as a board member of Teenshop, Inc., which nurtures Girls with Goals, and is a former board member of Bebashi Transition to Hope, the second oldest AIDS service organization in Philadelphia. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and the National Association of Black Journalists (NNPA). McClain has been recognized by the NNPA for journalism excellence – winning first prize for her Lifestyles, Entertainment and Learning Key sections. She was a 2018 WDAS Women of Excellence honoree, one of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity’s African American Women Achievers and was honored by Teenshop, Inc. for her work in the media. McClain grew up in Indianapolis, IN. She attended Ball State University in Muncie, IN, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and was inducted into Kappa Tau Alpha, the national journalism honor society.
When McClain spoke with FunTimes she said, “The most defining moment in my career and life came in the early 1990s. I was a young reporter in Indianapolis covering a story on a teenager who was being held in juvenile detention, facing a serious weapons charge. A conviction would have changed the trajectory of his life. It was not my job to prove his guilt or innocence, but to report the facts surrounding his case. The article I wrote moved the judge presiding over the case to dismiss the charges against the young man. It was the first time I truly understood the power and responsibility of the press and my role as a journalist.
“As far as challenges, I did not have a woman to mentor me or sponsor me because there were very few women, particularly Black women, in journalism when I started. That was the biggest challenge I had to face. I was fortunate to rise to my position and earn a seat at the table as an editor and have my voice heard. But that is not the norm. The newsroom is still very much a good old boys club, and women are just beginning to crack the glass ceiling. It is important to me, now, to mentor young Black, female journalists and offer them the guidance, support and perspective that I did not have at the beginning of my career.
“Every year the Tribune Magazine publishes a list of Philadelphia’s Most Influential African Americans highlighting Black leadership in Philadelphia. It is a celebration of our greatness and shows our community, particularly young people, that despite the negative stories they may see reported in mainstream news, or what their circumstances are, that they can achieve anything they put their minds to. There are hundreds of men and women in Philadelphia who look like them who are in leadership positions in politics, business, finance, the arts and education. When we see it, we can believe it and if we believe it, we can achieve it. There seems to be this us against them mentality when it comes to the African, Caribbean and African American [in the] Diaspora, but I think we would be better served if we came together to celebrate what we have in common culturally, intellectually, historically and politically and appreciate and respect our differences. This happens through open and honest dialogue about our shared histories, our shared struggles, our shared hopes and dreams. We need to focus more on what connects us as a people and less on what
separates and divides us”.
Women Of Influence 2018 In This Issue
