There were early reports that Quincy Jones was on a quest to save VIBE Magazine, the publication he once owned, from a complete shutdown. But contrary to earlier reports, Quincy has no intention of saving the actual print publication which will release its last ever issue this month. Instead, Quincy, unlike many other print pubs out there, clearly sees the future is in the internet.

“I’m trying to buy my magazine back now,” Quincy told EbonyJet.com in a Tuesday phone call. “They just messed my magazine all up, but I’m gonna get it back. You better believe it, I’m’a take it online because print and all that stuff is over.”

“We gotta get into the 21st century you know,” he added. “Print and all that stuff is over, we gotta remember that. The Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Post Intelligencer. The Miami Herald. They’re over the same way as the record business. We have got to get into this century.”

We will keep you updated as to if Quincy will be able to do what he says here and save the online portion of VIBE. Nice to know an old-schooler in the game recognizes the importance of online. Hey Mr. Jones….there is another website you might want to buy. It’s called WoooHa.com.

Sad day in hip-hop here. After sixteen years of bringing the heat on urban culture and music, VIBE Magazine and the entire VIBE Media Group is shutting its doors for good. Rumors were running around like wild-fire the last two days but we wanted to make sure it was legit before posting something this big. Here is the official statement from the VIBE CEO and Editor in Chief. Via: Rap Radar
—————————————–
Dear VIBE Team:

It is with a heavy heart that I share some tough news, VMG is closing down effective today, June 30th.

It’s been an 16 incredible years since VIBE’s inception. There are very few magazines with the richness of history and breadth of talented visionaries who created the powerful lens in which VIBE viewed and shaped urban music and culture.

Ever since I first set foot in this courageous company, I’ve regarded myself as incredibly fortunate to be be involved with this remarkable brand and group of individuals whose performance has never been nothing short of outstanding. We finished 2008 in an improved position versus the prior year, and accomplished so much, including:

    * Editorial Awards
    * Editorial transformation into content dept
    * New Ad accounts being broken
    * The Most Mag Launch
    * Award winning re-design
    * Profitable digital operation
    * VIBE.com growth and improvements and programs such as  Best Rapper Ever,  #1 Stan, etc
    * Mobile VIBE  launch
    * Micro-site development Mostmag.com to start off.       
    * V Sessions
    * Improved PR coverage

Unfortunately, over the last several months, a confluence of events has obviously posed VMG to exceedingly serious challenges.

    * The collapse of the capital markets has impacted us greatly.  Over the past several months, we have actively pursued investment resources while working intensively with our bank to find a solution. But the deal market right now remains very poor and at the end of the day, the lack of investment resources to restructure the huge debt on our small company has made this outcome become a reality.

    * The print advertising collapse hit VIBE hard, especially as key ad categories like automotive and fashion, which represented the bulk of our top 10 advertisers, have stopped advertising or gone out of business. It’s also unfortunate that in a recession many companies reduce the multi-cultural campaigns. These facts, coupled with the continuing decline of the music industry not to mention the newsstand wholesaler consolidation in early 2009 all negatively impacted our business in a significant way.

 * The relentless economic situation has depressed our growth initiatives on the digital front. To be clear, VMG has made significant improvement in this part of our business, but not at the accelerated pace required to offset the devastating effects of the most severe recession in our lifetime and the accompanying print losses.

I want to thank you all for your hard work and commitment, and for all of the adventures along the way. I’ll miss this place a lot, but I’ll miss you all and the magic you create.

Vibe will be remembered as a shockingly brilliant content company that everyone can be proud of and I look forward with great excitement to all of future endeavors you all pursue.

With great affection and respect –

Steve Aaron

former CEO of VIBE Media Group
On behalf the VIBE CONTENT staff (the best in this business), it is with great sadness, and with heads held high, that we leave the building today. We were assigning and editing a Michael Jackson tribute issue when we got the news. It’s a tragic week in overall, but as the doors of VIBE Media Group close, on the eve of the magazine’s sixteenth anniversary, it’s a sad day for music, for hip hop in particular, and for the millions of readers and users who have loved and who continue to love the VIBE brand. We thank you, we have served you with joy, pride and excellence, and we will miss you. —Danyel Smith

50 Cent x Power Cologne. As we announced a couple weeks back, 50 Cent will be launching a cologne line called Power by 50 through his new Lighthouse Beauty company. Complex Magazine caught up with him during the launch and talked Power…

Complex: What brings you to the fragrance game and why the name Power?

50 Cent: Power translates in every language. It means the same thing. It’s just said differently. I still haven’t been a part of creating, from a business perspective a venture that translates in every market that I’m relevant, away from music. People decide to love American music with a different passion when they’re in foreign territories because there’s a language barrier that they’re breaking to accept it to begin with. Away from that, power is confidence. The confidence to deliver your answer when you’re in a board meeting is what will allow you to move up faster. The confidence to be yourself in front of people creates a separation. The people that you saw speak ahead of me at this event had to read their paper that people prepared for them. I didn’t, my confidence will allow me to do things my way and help people make a decision. People will like the idea of me just being me.

Complex: Do you think your fragrance will sell better than those by Jay-Z, Diddy, and Usher?

50 Cent: I don’t think it matters. I think it will be there as a representative of what I feel like is quality right now. People can decide. The consumers will decide that. If I said something to the likes of me feeling like I would be more successful than those other projects, it might turn some of them off. So I wouldn’t answer that question. I’d leave that to them to judge.

Complex: I just know that you’re competitive with your music so…

50 Cent: Yeah, but not with everything. You can’t be that way. The competitive nature of hip-hop culture has always had battling involved with it. So you battle with the other artist but not necessarily in business and everywhere else.

Complex: What fragrance did you wear before this came out?

50 Cent: Creed and Emporio.

Lil Jon x Little Jonathan Winery. We admit, it was hard to take Lil Jon’s announcement of his Little Jonathan winery seriously a couple years back. But turns out…his wine is actually good. No seriously. Little Jonathan Wine is now award winning. WHHAAAAT? Yea no joke. The Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits group awarded his wine a prestigious Silver Medal. Lil Jon made sure all the haters knew about his award winning wine with this Tweet:

@LILJIZZEL “FOR ALL YALL SUKKAS THAT WERE HATING ON MY WINE CHECK THIS OUT!! WE WINNING AWARDS TWITT!!! GET U SOME.”

Looks like Ludacris can only hope he has similar success with his new Cognac line. Via: Highbrid Nation

Yea who didn’t see this one coming? Celeb who needs some money? Write a book. And that is exactly what Dame is doing. A bunch of sites like Bossip are reporting that Dame has actually already finished writing the book. Here are the details…

Books are like the new album these days. Well, first there is Amil and now I am getting the word that Dame Dash is also writing a book about his life and times. In fact, I heard Dame’s book is already finished. Guess who I am hearing the book was written by none other than Kim Osorio, the former editor-in-chief of The Source magazine. Yeah, baby– Dame’s about to be BACK! Anyway, I heard he is looking for a publisher or distribution for this masterpiece! Good luck!

Would be good to hear some official word on this though. I hope there is some flip cam action of him yelling at his book publisher’s marketing department.

Wale x Microsoft. Despite the fact that Zune continues to bleed money for Microsoft, the software giant can’t afford to let it go and continues to aggressively collaborate with the hip-hop community. The latest venture is Zune’s “On The Road WIth Wale” video shorts that we mentioned awhile back but now Zune has also released a limited edition Wale branded Zune player.

These players of course are not for sale but you can try your luck over at Eskay’s to win one now. But don’t worry…I’m sure Bill Gates has identified Drake as the next one to join the Zune army.

50 Cent and manager Chris Lighty have just launched a company called Lighthouse Beauty which will create, market and distribute a line of 50 Cent inspired colognes later this year. The first one to hit the market will be called “Power by 50 Cent” and will be distributed similar to other cologne and perfume distribution models…yes that means Macy’s.

Chris Lighty had the following to say about his new venture with 50:

“The typical musician or actor might not know much about developing a fragrance or a skin care line, but he definitely wants to capitalize on his brand potential. After spending years bringing clients to major corporations to forge partnerships, I wanted to take that synergy to the next level by establishing a destination for artists and celebrities to create and distribute their brands from start to finish.

What we’ll do at Lighthouse Beauty is not only transform a name into a product, but also take that product from its inception to the shelves.”

This is not 50’s first time entering this territory. He had a deal with Gilette for the RBX Pure 50 Body Spray earlier last year. Unfortunatley sales of body sprays took a nose dive and so did their deal. Let’s see how this whole perfume/cologne venture plays out though.

Keri Hilson x Wet Seal. Keri has recently secured a nice spokesperson deal with mall based retailer Wet Seal. Word is the deal calls for HIlson to promote the Wet Seal line through the standard promotions, photoshoots, in-store appearances and ads. No word on the pretty amount of money she got for this. Check this vid of her photoshoot.

Akon x Konvict Cosmetics. Akon will be releasing his first products under his Konvict Cosmetics International company in the form of two fragrances, Kovict and Aliuane. So now you don’t need to be an ex-con, you can just smell like one.

According to Women’s Wear Daily, the fragrances will be available on the company’s website starting in August making it one of the few fragrances released by an urban artist that actually will NOT have Macy’s distribution. The Konvict fragrance is aimed at the younger consumer, while Aliaune is for the more sophisticated consumer. Eh…do sophisticated consumers listen to Akon? The guy is a kid thrower! Forget Kobe. It’s all about Dr. Jays.