Family Digest Announces the 50 Best Companies for African Americans™ – 2006

Family Digest Announces the 50 Best Companies for African Americans™ – 2006. List in its 4th year highlights companies best at recruitment and advancement of African Americans with work/life balance.

Austin, TX September 12, 2006 -- Family Digest today announced its fourth annual list of the Best Companies for African Americans™ for 2006 as featured in the magazine’s Fall 2006 cover story. In selecting the companies, Family Digest’s editors evaluated more than 1,000 companies in the following areas: employee feedback, employee demographics, recruitment of African Americans, board makeup, company culture, advancement of African Americans, work-life programs and policies, and spending with Black-owned suppliers.

A total of 50 companies were identified as worthy of recognition. Among these top 50, Denny’s, New York Life, Morgan Stanley and Cingular were singled out for strong all-around performance. Also included on the list were Burrell Communications Group, UniWorld Group, and Carol H. Williams Advertising, three advertising agencies that specialize in reaching the Black consumer market.

“We love great companies. Great companies strive for a type of perfection that, while generally unattainable, allows them to improve year after year,” says Family Digest Founder & Publisher Darryl L. Mobley. “It is in this spirit that we searched for, and found, the 50 great company’s that made up Family Digest’s 4th annual list of the Best Companies for African Americans™. Family Digest was the first publication to focus on the unique question of whether or not companies were doing a sufficient job at employment, retention and promotion of African Americans, in an environment sane to the needs of working adults and their families.”

“Family Digest is the leading magazine addressing the interests of African American heads-of-household and their families,” said Family Digest Editor-in-Chief Susan Benjamin. “We all know that professional success enables parents to provide for their families. Because of this, we were interested in each firm’s work-family programs, flexible-work policies, mentoring programs and the like.”

Family Digest also does not rank the companies selected. According to Darryl L. Mobley, “To rank these outstanding companies is to commit fraud by our judgment and to make losers of all we did not deem to be number one.”

The list of Family Digest Best Companies for African Americans™ for 2006 includes the following:

Abbott Laboratories - Abbott Park, IL

Aflac Inc. - Columbus, GA

Allstate - Northbrook, IL

American Airlines Inc. - Fort Worth, TX

American Express - New York, NY

AT&T - Bedminster, NJ

Bank of America - Charlotte, NC

BellSouth - Atlanta, GA

Burrell Communications Group – Chicago, IL

Carol H. Williams Advertising – Oakland, CA

Cingular – Atlanta, GA

Citigroup - New York, NY

The Coca-Cola Co. - Atlanta, GA

Colgate-Palmolive – New York, NY

DaimlerChrysler - Auburn Hills, MI

Darden – Orlando, FL

Denny’s Restaurants – Spartanburg, SC

Eastman Kodak Co. - Rochester, NY

Fannie Mae - Washington, DC

Ford Motor Co. - Dearborn, MI

General Motors – Detroit, MI

JPMorgan Chase – New York, NY

Kellogg Co. - Battle Creek, MI

Kraft Foods - Northfield, IL

Macy's/Bloomingdale's - Cincinnati, OH

Marriott International, Inc. - Washington, DC

McDonald's Corp. - Oak Brook, IL

Merck & Co. - Whitehouse Station, NJ

Merrill Lynch & Co. - New York, NY

MGM Mirage – Las Vegas, NV

Morgan Stanley - New York, NY

New York Life - New York, NY

Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation - East Hanover, NJ

PepsiCo - Purchase, NY

PricewaterhouseCoopers - New York, NY

Procter & Gamble - Cincinnati, OH

Prudential Financial – Newark, NJ

SC Johnson - Racine, WI

Sprint Nextel - Reston, VA

Starwood Hotels - White Plains, NY

SunTrust Banks - Atlanta, GA

Toyota Motor North America Inc. - New York, NY

Turner Broadcasting - Atlanta, GA

United Parcel Service – Atlanta, GA

UniWorld Group – New York, NY

Wachovia - Charlotte, NC

Washington Mutual – Seattle, WA

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. - Bentonville, AR

Wells Fargo - San Francisco, CA

Yum! Brands Inc. - Louisville, KY

The complete special report on the Best Companies for African Americans™ for 2006, including methodology and selection criteria, is available in the Fall 2006 issue of Family Digest, available on newsstands September 25, 2006.

Family Digest Media Group was founded by Darryl Mobley. Family Digest’s mission is to help develop, “Smarter, Healthier, Happier Families” by providing information to move families and relationships ahead. Family Digest Media Group properties include: Family Digest Magazine -- Black America’s No. 1 Family & Relationship Magazine -- is the premier resource for smarter, healthier, happier African American families. The publication provides nearly 3 million readers with information on love, relationships & marriage, family & parenting, travel, beauty, fashion & style, food, and health & wellness; the Ultimate Soul Food TV food show; Family Digest REPORTS Radio Show -- the only “How-To” family, relationship, health & lifestyle radio show that reaches Black America’s family gatekeepers; The Family Digest Show -- the only “How-To” TV show for Smarter, Happier Healthier, Families, Relationships and Kids; the One Minute Dad TV and Radio Show; Smart Savers Free Standing Insert programs; the Family Digest Power of Family Get Together held at Walt Disney World; the Family Digest & Partners Family Health Kit; and the Bid Whist World Championship, along with various other sampling programs and events.

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