New Owners Relaunch Vibe With Chris Brown Cover

Magazine to Return as Quarterly With Smaller Circulation Guarantee

by Nat Ives
Published: November 02, 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- As they try to bring Vibe magazine back from the dead, its new owners and editor have chosen a provocative subject for the new incarnation's first cover: Chris Brown, who could use a little resuscitation himself.

The cover with Chris Brown, who is attempting a comeback after pleading guilty in June to felony assault on fellow performer and now ex-girlfriend Rihanna, actually shares the print run with covers featuring Drake, another hip-hop artist. But it's the Chris Brown cover that's more likely to get people talking.

And if the choice succeeds in generating the buzz that's intended, Vibe's cover will show off the power that print can still wield. Putting a feature about the tarnished pop star online alone, by contrast, probably wouldn't stand to get the same attention.

But Vibe and its fellow music magazines still face more challenges from digital media than, say, fashion magazines do. Music, not to mention its devotees, works better with digital than glossies focused on visuals. That's why you now see Vibe magazine recast as just one arm of the Vibe Lifestyle Network, why Rolling Stone is bringing its website back in-house, and why, to some degree, Blender lies in the magazine graveyard.

"Here, Vibe.com is really the hub," said Jermaine Hall, editor in chief of the new Vibe and Vibe.com . "That's where everything needs to go back to. Whether it's the magazine, or we decide to do some kind of TV programming down the line, everything needs to come back to Vibe.com."