Vibe Magazine Shuts Down

Respected R&B publication's closure is effective immediately.

By Fred Mills

The latest casualty of what historians will one day refer to as The Great Print Magazine Purge of the Early 21^st Century is hip-hop/urban publication Vibe. Founded in 1992 by Quincy Jones and Time Warner, it was sold to private equity firm The Wicks Group in 2006 but had suffered steady declines in circulation and ad revenue.

According to the New York Times' Media Decoder, Vibe CEO Steve Aaron earlier today circulated a memo to the staff announcing the magazine's shuttering, effective immediately, indicating that efforts to restructure "the huge debut on our small company" and to find new investors had failed. Wrote Aaron, "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."

Daily Finance, in its report, noted that when reached for comment, the company's chief financial officer, Angela Zucconi, said that an official statement would be made available to the public "by the end of the day. That's all I can say at this point."

Meanwhile, RapRadar.com obtained a copy of the Aaron memo and posted it to its site. In addition to problems with advertising, Aaron blamed the magazine's demise on the recession and on "the collapse of the capital markets" which made raising money in the current economic climate nearly impossible. (In recent months, Vibe attempted a number of cost-cutting measures, including reducing circulation and frequency, cutting salaries and utilizing a four-day work week.) He also noted Vibe's numerous achievements over the years and predicted that it would be remembered as "a shockingly brilliant content company that everyone can be proud of."

 You can read the memo in its entirety, below.

As several observers have already pointed out, this leaves The Source - long a lightning rod for controversy and recently going through a bankruptcy - as the last magazine standing in terms of large-circ hip-hop/R&B publications.

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Dear VIBE team:

It is with a heavy heart that I share some tough news, VMG is closing down effective today, June 30th.

It's been an 16 incredible years since VIBE's inception. There are very few magazines with the richness of history and breadth of talented visionaries who created the powerful lens in which VIBE viewed and shaped urban music and culture.

Ever since I first set foot in this courageous company, I've regarded myself as incredibly fortunate to be be involved with this remarkable brand and group of individuals whose performance has never been nothing short of outstanding. We finished 2008 in an improved position versus the prior year, and accomplished so much, including:

    * Editorial Awards
    * Editorial transformation into content dept
    * New Ad accounts being broken
    * The Most Mag Launch
    * Award winning re-design
    * Profitable digital operation
    * VIBE.com growth and improvements and programs such as  Best Rapper Ever,  #1 Stan, etc
    * Mobile VIBE  launch
    * Micro-site development Mostmag.com to start off.       
    * V Sessions
    * Improved PR coverage

Unfortunately, over the last several months, a confluence of events has obviously posed VMG to exceedingly serious challenges.

    * The collapse of the capital markets has impacted us greatly.  Over the past several months, we have actively pursued investment resources while working intensively with our bank to find a solution. But the deal market right now remains very poor and at the end of the day, the lack of investment resources to restructure the huge debt on our small company has made this outcome become a reality.

    * 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. 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.

 * The relentless economic situation has depressed our growth initiatives on the digital front. To be clear, VMG has made significant improvement in this part of our business, but not at the accelerated pace required to offset the devastating effects of the most severe recession in our lifetime and the accompanying print losses.

I want to thank you all for your hard work and commitment, and for all of the adventures along the way. I'll miss this place a lot, but I'll miss you all and the magic you create.

Vibe will be remembered as a shockingly brilliant content company that everyone can be proud of and I look forward with great excitement to all of future endeavors you all pursue.

With great affection and respect -

Steve Aaron

former CEO of VIBE Media Group