Vibe Magazine Set To Relaunch
Well it’s official, Vibe will not be closing! After a few mere months after closing its doors; there has been an official announcement made that Vibe has been bought and will ultimately be resurrected by InterMedia Partners in partnership with both Uptown Media Group and Blackrock Digital. During the announcement, InterMedia Partners President David Koff made a statement saying:
“Vibe is the preeminent brand in R&B and hip-hop. We feel privileged to purchase and resurrect such a storied brand,” David Koff, Senior Partner of InterMedia Partners said in a statement. “Together with the relaunch of Soul Train this fall and the rapid expansion of Uptown Magazine, a reinvigorated Vibe enables us to serve a broad spectrum of the African American audience with high quality entertainment and information.”
The new owners wish to restore the brand through various changes including the business model, content strategy, and even their design. So we will most likely be seeing Vibe with a brand new makeover. Hopefully it will be what the brand needs to regenerate sales and create more longevity. Reuters reported:
“A group led by Leo Hindery‘s PE firm InterMedia Partners and its luxury
publisher Uptown Media is picking up the magazine, and more important, its website. Vibe.com is the linchpin of the plans described in the WSJ : reopen the site in coming weeks, publish a print edition at the end of the year with and then go quarterly. No financial terms but maybe CapitalSource Bank, which foreclosed on previous owner Wicks Group, is paying them a dollar. The acquisition gives InterMedia more to market to advertisers targeting African-Americans. The Journal says the site and the mag will be packaged with Uptown magazine; ads for the site will be sold by Blackrock Digital. Editorially, they’ll go wider than hip-hop, which should help.”
With their brand new ownership, both Vibe.com and Vibe Magazine will resurface soon. Vibe.com will relaunch immediately however the magazine will relaunch in November or December of 2009, which will now be released quarterly.
The Chief Creative Officer of Uptown Media Group, Brett Wright, had this to say regarding the future of Vibe:
“Vibe was always a leader in the Cultural Revolution, from music, entertainment and fashion to news and investigative reporting, offering artistic content that pushed the culture forward. We are reclaiming that mission,” said Brett Wright, Chief Creative Officer, Uptown Media Group.
I’m sure we are all happy about this; I just hope that they don’t water down vibe. Sometimes venturing out will cause valued readers to become uninterested and they maybe even claim a case of “selling out” on Vibe’s behalf. I just hope that Vibe, while making little changes to bring in more revenue, can and always will stay true to it’s roots, Hip-Hop!
C-Murder Convicted Of Second Degree Murder
Finally C-Murder has met his fate. On August 11, 2009, rapper Corey “C-Murder” Miller was convicted of second-degree murder for shooting a 16-year-old by the name of Steve Thomas, back in 2002 during a nightclub altercation.
Initially the Louisiana jury involved in the case was deadlocked after the end of the first day of deliberations, however the very next day the group reached a 10-2 verdict in favor of the convictions. That decision went under scrutiny when District Judge Hans Liljberg felt that one of the jurors only changed her vote to end deliberations. He then ordered the jury back into deliberations.
The Associated Press reported:
“The Louisiana jury reached the 10-2 verdict around 1:30 p.m. in its second day of deliberations. Jurors had reached the same verdict earlier in the day, but District Judge Hans Liljeberg ordered them back to the jury room for more deliberation because of a questionable vote. Liljeberg said after the verdict’s intial reading that one juror had apparently changed her vote just to end deliberations. Three jurors had been seen crying in the courtroom Tuesday morning, and the day before they sent a note that they were having trouble reaching a consensus.”
According to defense attorney Ron Rakosky, Liljeberg pressured the jury into reaching a decision but Liljeberg denies those allegations stating:
“I don’t think I pressured them at all. I told them if they could not reach a verdict to let me know.“
Although there was justice shown towards the family of Steve Thomas, the boy’s father was in no mood to celebrate saying:
“I’m not rejoicing. I feel bad for (Miller‘s) family. But at least they can see him. What have we got but a gravesite and a photograph.”
Miller’s sister, Germaine Miller feels a bit differently about the situation. Upon leaving the Lousiana courtroom on Tuesday, Germaine made a plea for any witnesses to step forward and expressed her reaction to her brother’s sentence saying:
“I have feelings and I’m sorry for Steve Thomas’ family,” Miller’s sister said leaving the courtroom. “I lost a brother also…Where are all the witnesses at the club? Come out, be here, be a witness, come up here. If you not Corey, don’t worry about [the name] C-Murder , you come up here and show these people we need to deal with this! We need to deal with it. I’m tired of everybody holding their breath…Where is justice? Where is Barack?”
I’m not so sure Barack is going to want to deal with this situation. Is that what we do when we commit a crime, yank out that trusty dusty race card? He pleaded guilty, and now he has to suffer the consequences for his actions. There has been no set sentence time and no one else has yet come forward to comment.
Watch Germaine Miller’s Video Below:
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