Vibe Founder Quincy Jones “Trying” to Buy Back Magazine

In an exclusive interview with EbonyJet.com (Vibe Closes Down, Quincy Jones Wants it Back), Quincy Jones founder of the newly folded Vibe Magazine, told writer Adrienne Samuels Gibbs that he was trying to buy back the magazine. He also stated that he would bring it back to life “albeit in a slightly different way.”

‘ “I’m trying to buy my magazine back now,” Jones told EbonyJet.com just moments ago during a telephone call to Jones’ London abode. “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.”’

Jones introduced Vibe in 1993 as a refuge for hip hop and R&B music news and features, which he felt weren’t given a fair shake in mainstream media. The EbonyJet.com article writes,

Many described Vibe as a black Rolling Stone, but perhaps bigger. Amongst the publication’s famous covers were those featuring hip hop giants  placing hip hop giants 2pac and the Notorious B.I.G. The magazine’s last cover featured Eminem.

In 2006, Wicks Media Group purchased the magazine, expanded its online presence, and most recently promoted Danyel Smith to chief content officer. The question remains will she and others have their jobs salvaged with Quincy Jones’s ownership?

‘ “We gotta get into the 21st century you know,” Jones said. “ “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.”’

Gibbs also writes, “Industry analysts say that without the burden of paying for the printed page, there might be a digital opportunity for VIBE if the brand’s name and archives could be bought without having to assume the company’s debt.”