Case Study

Background Details• Vibe is a music and entertainment magazine which was founded

by a producer named Quincy Jones in 1933. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip-hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down in the Summer of 2009, Vibe was purchased by the private funders; InterMedia Partners and is now issued every-other month with double covers, with a larger online presence. The magazine's target demographic is largely aimed at young, urban followers of hip-hop culture.

• The magazine wanted to widen its success to featuring a broader range of interests than its closest competitors The Source and XXL which focus more towards rap music, or the rock & pop-centric Rolling Stone and Spin.

This was one of the first issues of Vibe magazine to be published.

The master head of this front cover of vibe still remains the same within today’s issues of vibe, although the colours might change the font is still the same.

The sell lines also still remain the same in the way there placed and what they feature such as the list of music artists which feature inside.

Most of the colours on the front of this cover are also still similar to most of today’s issues. The colours yellow, black, red and white all represent a typical RnB magazine.

The main image also represents a typical RnB singer who is well known, presenting typical RnB iconography.

Vibe Today

• Vibe today is currently one of the biggest RnB music magazines being published. Due to the magazine not being around for that long, all the features and forms of layout still remain the same. This magazine is issued monthly with approximately 75 pages full of entertainment and gossip from the RnB music industry. Vibe offers a subscription package which monthly costs $9.99 (£6.29)

• This magazine does not have a standard magazine layout as their ratio for images to articles is 60:40. They also do follow the traditional convention of having many sell lines on the front cover of the magazine, this is because the readers attention is aimed at the main artist on the font.

Inside Vibe

Target Audience Of Vibe

• This RnB music magazine is generally aimed at 16-25 year olds both being male and female readers. The readers that read Vibe are all individuals who take a great interest in music, fashion, films and TV.

• Readers that read this magazine have a passion about music and enjoy reading Vibe to find out the latest Rnb gossip.

Content

• Vibe features many entertaining factors whether this being interviews with top RnB artist, tour dates, or new releases.

• This magazine not only offers music information but also features many American/African film with film reviews and interviews with many famous actors.

• Common featured artists within Vibe magazine are; Nicki Minaj, T.I, Chris brown, Drake etc.

Style

• Vibe magazine features many a lot of iconography from the RnB genre of music. These items being Jewellery, topless hot men, beautiful women and cars etc.

• This music magazine includes a fair amount of both pictures and articles and the fonts that are used are mainly in a lower case to highlight and emphasize the calm tone throughout this magazine.

• The colours black and white seem to appear throughout this magazine portraying again a calm and easy going tone all the way throughout the magazine.

Mode of Address

• The tone used throughout this music magazine is friendly in order to appeal to the readers.

• The language used within the magazine highlights that the readers understand the genre of urban music and can therefore relate to it.

Ownership• This music magazine; Vibe was launched by a

very successful musician named Quincy Jones, he had a partnership with Time Inc who were very successful in the magazine industry as they also shared ownership within well known magazines such as NME, Marie Claire, Fortune, InStyle and many more.

• Ron Burkle and Magic Johnson invested in the company and merged with Blackbook Media which then formed Vibe Media in 2012.