I first started reading Vibe sometime in middle school when the pages were extra big and it was hard to hold the magazine up without my arms hurting because it was so damn thick and heavy. When Angela and I met over four years ago we bonded over the fact that we both wanted to write for Vibe magazine someday.  So when she texted me this morning to tell me that Vibe folded I knew she was some where in Atlanta feeling a bit sad that our childhood dream would never come true.

 

Even though we predicted the death of Vibe long before they put Plies on the cover and said he was the future of hip-hop, I think we both held out on the dream that one of us might make it to Vibe and write great articles reminiscent of its golden age – when Kevin Powell’s articles were long as shit and you could see how he and other writers for the mag took the time to delve deep into the minds of our favorite artists.

 

In the past couple of years  I only read Vibe when I got my crop done at the hair salon. I would read the 20-questions (which lacked in comparison to what it was in the 90s) and that was about it. 

 

Many will blame the magazine’s failure on low ad sales, the Internet, and the decline of the music industry but the truth is, Vibe died long before the print industry began to falter.  

 

Like many print publications, Vibe underestimated its core audience. The group that actually bought the magazine in the 90s got older and abandoned the publication while Vibe got younger and a bit shallow (i.e. the recent Rihanna expose issue). The articles got shorter, the mags’ IQ dropped, and they became irrelevant even with the savvy and smart Danyel Smith at the helm. 

 

The audience it appeared to target – the microwave/instant gratification generation (14-21 years old) – were too busy getting their 411 on the Internet, while the people who could actually afford to shell out $4 for a magazine lost interest. 

 

Rather than speak to the audience who could have kept them alive, Vibe went dumb like its counterparts: the radio, the record business, and television. And now, of course, it’s dead.

Tags: Vibe, VIBE Magazine