Cynthia Horner joined Right On! as an assistant in 1976, and in 2014 she and her husband bought the magazine.
She is 71 now, and she is the chief executive, editor-in-chief, and co-owner of Right On! Digital. She was made editorial director within a few months of being hired, and she has spent fifty years in media. What changed in 2014 is that the masthead became hers, bought with her husband, the photographer Kenneth Harris.
Horner was born in Indiana and moved to California at the age of five. She was editing her school newspaper by 11 and went to Pepperdine University on full scholarships. “Journalism was ingrained in me,” she said. “I’m an overachiever.”
She joined Right On! in 1976 as an assistant and was promoted within months. Of those early years at the magazine, she said, “We were really like family.”
Horner has been president of the New York Association of Black Journalists since 2024. The association holds its Sneaker Ball and Awards Ceremony at the Alhambra Ballroom, 2216 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. in Harlem, on October 23, 2026, where the Rev. Al Sharpton receives its Legacy in Civil Rights and Media award, and the journalist Tiffany Cross speaks.
She plans to resume printing Right On! on a bi-monthly schedule early next year.
Asked about the recognition that has come with fifty years, she said, “I’m not out here seeking glory, because the glory seeks me.”
