Popular US magazine VIBE announced earlier this week that it will be closing its doors after 16 years of being one of the world’s premier urban lifestyle publications.
The announcement follows a number of pay-cuts and reduced working days their content staff became subject to in February this year, as well as a dramatic circulation cut from 800 000 to 600 000.
VIBE was established in 1993 by Quincy Jones and has played a very big roll in shaping hip hop & R&B culture in America and beyond. They are perhaps most famous for the roll they played in documenting the East vs. West Coast beef in the early '90s which lead to the death of Tupac Shakur and B.I.G.
Editor-in-chief for VIBE, Danyel Smith, released a statement about their closure on Wednesday morning: “On behalf of the VIBE content staff, 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.”
