What a sad week in entertainment!  I was on my way to the Apollo Theater’s tribute to Michael Jackson on Tuesday when my Twitter account lit up with more unfortunate news: Vibe magazine had closed. The plug has also been pulled on the production of Vibe.com.

The magazine was approaching a 16-year anniversary and staff was in the middle of working on a Michael Jackson tribute issue when they got the news of the close which was effective immediately after the announcement was made.

Now according to RapRadar.com (which was started by former XXL editor Elliott Wilson, the husband of Vibe’s current Editor-in-Chief Danyel Smith), the final issue will feature The-Dream and a topless Christina Milian (looking like a bootleg remake of Janet Jackson’s “Janet” album cover. I hate to see them go out like this! Wish they could’ve finished the MJ special edition issue).

In a recent interview, Quincy Jones who founded Vibe magazine in 1993, chimed in on the fold:

“I’m trying to buy my magazine back now. 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. We gotta get into the 21st century you know. Print and all that stuff is over, we gotta remember that. The Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Post Intelligencer. The Miami Herald. They’re over the same way as the record business. We have got to get into this century.”

I hope he makes good on these plans. If The Source magazine (which is currently the only large-circulation magazine focusing on hip hop and R&B on newsstands) could go through bankruptcy and emerge surely there’s some hope for a Vibe revival?

Besides lamenting the loss of the iconic music magazine that I grew up with I can’t help but be saddned that yet another publication aimed at African Americans has bitten the dust. Guess I better go renew my subscription of Essence.

TAGS: Christina Milian, Quincy Jones, The Dream

Comments (6)