Did MEDIATAKEOUT try to save VIBE MAGAZINE?
Source:Reuters/Mediatakeout
Very interesting and this might be Mediatakeout’s jockeying to become as big as TMZ though they do not have the same major corporation backing. We have not seen any evidence yet that they are making money off of the gobs of traffic they get everyday.
What will be their next move in the coverage of black celebrities? TV show? They will first have to stop will the unreliable and outright garbage stories with no basis in order to be taken serious and to compete with TMZ.
Read more below from Reuters:
Here’s an entry from our very own Reuters New York equities team summer intern Chavon Sutton. (Thanks, Chavon!)
Did Vibe magazine, the print ambassador of hip-hop culture, voice and style, pass up a chance to survive last year?
Vibe, the baby of acclaimed producer Quincy Jones (the composer who produced the late Michael Jackson’s mega-hit albums, “Thriller” and “Off the Wall,”), said earlier this week that it was shutting down immediately.
A partnership with an online gossip website serving African-American readers, might have given it room to keep producing, according to the site’s founder and editor.
Fred Mwangaguhunga, who runs Mediatakeout.com, told us that in the year before Vibe’s collapse, it offered the magazine a revenue-share deal, but Vibe refused.
“We came to Vibe and offered it a deal where they’d sell our ads and in return, they’d get a stake in the ads they sold,” Mwangagunhunga said.
The partnership could have given Vibe “$1 million a month, but they didn’t want it,” he said.
$1 million a month? Hard to say. (For what it’s worth, Mwangaguhunga says Mediatakeout.com gets 3 to 5 million unique viewers and 150 million page impressions per month.)
We tried to reach Vibe, or whatever is left of it, but a computerized voicemail message at the magazine’s office said: “Message quota exceeded. Goodbye.”
Did Vibe take a wise pass in the hopes of striking a better online deal? Or do its actions suggest that it is another example of entrenched print types avoiding imminent change?
It could be a pointless question. Jones told EbonyJet.com that he plans to buy back the magazine, which had a circulation of over 800,000, according to The New York Times.
Incidentally, Ebony apparently isn’t interested in working with Mediatakeout either.
“We made the same proposal to Ebony [magazine] which is facing pressure now,” he said. “I’m not sure why they’re saying no.”
streetknowledge
missdanijackson
Mediatakeout to become the next TMZ? Now that’s laughable. Like you noted, the large traffic numbers don’t equate to large ad dollars. Such is the case for sites like MediaTakeOut (and black gossip sites in general). To a lesser, but still important extent, even Perez Hilton’s bottom line is effected by the content he posts. Thus, Hilton is trying to project a more kinder, gentler persona and is even said to be considering creating another site that is more celeb-friendly.
Finally, if Vibe had aligned itself with MediaTakeOut, it would have all but destroyed the well-established and well-regarded brand and any possible resurrection in the near or distant future would have been rendered null and void.