Vibe Magazine, the African-American lifestyle magazine, is closing down after folding financially on Tuesday.
The magazine will no produce print issues nor publish its website Vibe.com, effective immediately.
The closure leaves just one African-American music magazine in circulation in The Source. Vibe was considered to be the Rolling Stone of the Black community as it focused on hip-hop, R&B and fashion for the mainstream.
The staff at Vibe was told of the news around 2 p.m. EST during a meeting.
"On behalf of the VIBE CONTENT staff, it is with great sadness, and with heads held high, that we leave the building today," Editor-in-chief Danyel Smith said in a statement. "We were assigning and editing a Michael Jackson tribute issue when we got the news. It's a tragic week overall, but as the doors of VIBE Media Group close, on the eve of the magazine's 16th 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."
In a memo to staff members announcing the closing, Steve Aaron, chief of the Vibe Media Group, wrote that over the past couple of months, the company aggressively sought to either find new investors or “to restructure the huge debt on our small company.”
“The print advertising collapse hit Vibe hard, 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,” Aaron wrote.
Musical impresario Quincy Jones and the company then called Time Warner created Vibe Magazine in 1992. The Wicks Group, a private equity firm, purchased the magazine in 2006.
Vibe reported circulation of 818,000 in the second half of last year, which was a strong amount, but like many magazines, it suffered from declining advertising. It announced in February that in July, it would cut its rate base from 800,000 to 600,000.
The final Vibe issue will feature singer The Dream and Christina Milian on the cover in a photo that is reminiscent to Janet Jackson’s 1993 Rolling Stone cover. The two announce their engagement within the final issue.
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