Co-Founder of Uptown Dishes on Vibe Deal (part 3)

by Angela

August 12, 2009

In this part of our interview with Brett Wright he talks about being a print purest. He makes a point on not trying to make Vibe an affluent publication in its’ rebirth while also stating:

“We would not have done Vibe.com if we couldn’t have figured out how to do a print version. We believe it is critical to the Vibe brand.”

He also spoke about how Uptown and its’ partners are cutting down the cost structure of distributing the printed publication. When asked “What will happen to old subscribers, will they grandfather into the new issues?” He told us they didn’t take on liability of subscribers but are working on ways to make sure paid subscribers of the magazine before it closed are happy. Another company purchased the liability of the subscriptions, no word on who the buyer was. Lastly, he also gives his personal take on the Freemium/Premium paid content model.

This is Part 3 in a series of 3.

Co-Founder of Uptown Dishes on Vibe Deal (part 3) [10:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (167)

Category: News, Podcast, web 2.0 | Tags: blackrock digital, Brett Wright, Chris Smith, David Koff, Intermedia Partners, Len Burnett, Leonard Burnett, Parker McNaughton, Quincy Jones, Robert Miller, Soul Train, uptown, uptown magazine, Vibe, vibe magazine, vibe.com

angela@blackweb20.com

I agree you can tell there a great amount of passion there. I am looking forward to seeing Vibe revamped. I think Vibe has a ll the opportunity to be a hot property among that demo but the team will have to with more than just static content to capture that audience...especially when it comes to the lower end of that age range. Reduced circulation is also smart, I think the higher end of that age range is still likely to pick up a print pub.

I am really interested in seeing how community is treated on the new site as well as across properties and if it will exist (also not to mention the execution). This was a great read today from Jeremiah Owyang about Warner building their own community across many of their brands while using traditional offsite communities as a supplement:

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/08/13/a...

Lynne d Johnson

I've now listened to all 3 parts of this interview with Uptown's Brett Wright about Intermedia, Uptown, and BlackRock acquiring Vibe and must say that it was pretty thorough. I was just telling someone this morning that the folks involved in this deal are definitely the ones most passionate about the brand -- having worked with many of them I can attest to this. I'm just curious about where they can take this in the future and whether Vibe can still be a hot property amongst 18 - 34 demographic.