|
Search:
|
|
|
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
MR's calendar of trade shows, industry events, parties and conferences. See what's coming or add your own. |
The complete guide to industry resources, suppliers, services and showrooms. |
HotPix 2010
MR's Annual look at interesting companies that might be under your radar, as published in the April 2010 issue. Click here to browse.
|
NEW YORK—Vibe Magazine is shutting down, citing low ad sales. The hip hop and R&B magazine was founded in 1992 by Quincy Jones and Time Warner and has a circulation of about 800,000.
A statement obtained by the New York media blog Gawker from Vibe’s editor-in-chief Danyel Smith said:
On behalf the [sic] VIBE CONTENT staff (the best in this business), it is with great sadness, and with heads held high, that we leave the building today. We were assigning and editing a Michael Jackson tribute issue when we got the news. It's a tragic week in overall, but as the doors of VIBE Media Group close, on the eve of the magazine's sixteenth anniversary, it's a sad day for music, for hip hop in particular, and for the millions of readers and users who have loved and who continue to love the VIBE brand. We thank you, we have served you with joy, pride and excellence, and we will miss you.
Danyel Smith
the former Chief Content Officer VIBE Media Group & Editor in Chief, VIBE
Vibe Media Group CEO Steve Aaron said in a staff memo that while the company had been seeking investors and working with its bank, it was unable to find the help that it needed to stay in business.
“The print advertising collapse hit Vibe hard,” Aaron added, “especially as key ad categories like automotive and fashion, which represented the bulk of our top 10 advertisers, have stopped advertising or gone out of business. It's also unfortunate that in a recession many companies reduce the multi-cultural campaigns. These facts, coupled with the continuing decline of the music industry not to mention the newsstand wholesaler consolidation in early 2009 all negatively impacted our business in a significant way.”
Vibe was acquired in 2006 by a prvaite equity firm called the Wicks Group. The magazine announced that it would be cutting its rate base from 800,000 to 600,000 in February.
Vibe joins the ranks of Men’s Vogue, which folded late last October, Best Life, which closed in March, fellow music magazine Blender, and Conde Nast’s business magazine Portfolio.
As The New York Times pointed out today, the demise of Vibe leaves just one major magazine focused on hip hop and R&B: The Source, which came out of bankruptcy with a new owner last August.
Get breaking news stories from MRketplace.com by e-mail. Register today.
