Regina Jones
Regina Jones is a publisher and writer, who was the co-owner of Soul.
Career
Regina Jones was born 23 September 1942 and grew up in South Los Angeles. She married Ken Jones when she was 15, after they'd met as students at Fremont High School in South Los Angeles.In 1965, Jones was working as a LAPD dispatcher. She later recalled taking distress calls from what would become known as the Watts riots. It was while watching the riots on television that she and her husband decided they needed to do something for Black people, and founded Soul, a music newspaper celebrating Black music. By 1967, Soul had gained popularity and Jones quit her LAPD job to work for the newspaper where she became editor-in-chief. Due to her work on Soul, Jones received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Woman In Business in 1980.
Soul was published by the Jones' bi-weekly, and in 1978 they followed it up with another publication focused on Black communities in Los Angeles, The Los Angeles Spirit. This was published weekly, and was printing 15,000 copies within its first 12 weeks, but closed down within one year.
After Soul closed in 1982, Jones became VP of publicity for Dick Griffey at SOLAR Records. She then founded Regina Jones & Associates, a PR firm whose clients included Geffen Records and Capitol Records.
She was the subject of a documentary film Who in the Hell Is Regina Jones? co-directed by Billy Miossi and Soraya Sélène, released in 2024. The film made its debut at the American Black Film Festival in June 2024, and has been shown at other festivals since.