Quincy Jones just caught wind of the collapse of the magazine he started-VIBE. And he’s not at all pleased with how things are going down. He said in a statement to EbonyJet.com yesterday that he plans to get his iconic magazine back and keep it alive:
“They just messed my magazine all up, but I’m gonna get it back. You better believe it, I’m'a take it online because print and all that stuff is over.”
He has a point about print being dead. But content is still King. Can VIBE pull it off even if they come back with a strictly online presence and Quincy Jones buys it back? Their latest editions haven’t been what they used to be. But time will tell…
Here’s the memo sent out by the VIBE Music Group CEO Steve Aaron:
“It is with a heavy heart that I share some tough news, VMG is closing down effective today, June 30 due to lack of additional financial investments.
“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.”
What do you think about all this? Do you still buy magazines? Or do you check out everything online?
