This deal looks more like a blocked shot for former Los Angeles Lakers star Earvin “Magic” Johnson, who was the chairman of Vibe Media since he and Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Partners invested at least $10 million in 2011.
Late last week, Vibe Media was sold to SpinMedia. The investors behind Vibe, including Yucaipa/Johnson Fund and Leo Hindery’s InterMedia Partners, received no cash in the deal.
It is widely expected that Vibe, the magazine founded by Quincy Jones in a joint venture with Time Warner in 1993, will be folded, although Vibe CEO Ari Horowitz insists nothing is decided.
Horowitz, who is staying on after the sale, said, “ It’s all about scale in the digital-media business. Putting these two together makes a lot of sense. You got to get bigger.”
Horowitz said the fate of the print magazine, which had a circulation of 242,531 and was published six times a year, is up in the air. He said the focus for the past two years has been on the digital side and that the print and digital staffs have been fully integrated.
The deal also includes Vibe Vixen. BlackBook, a city listings guide that went all-digital last year, is not included in the deal
A hot magazine in the early ’90s, Vibe has changed hands at least five times. A 2009 bankruptcy temporarily forced it to shut down before it was revived by private investors led by InterMedia.
Two years later, the Johnson/Yucaipa venture made an eight-figure investment in Vibe with a plan to aggressively grow it. “We’re buyers,” Johnson said at the time, adding that the aim was to acquire other assets and expand through licensing and music festivals.
The owners finally settled for swapping their Vibe ownership for small equity stake in SpinMedia, formerly BuzzMedia.
Last year, BuzzMedia took over Spin, folded the magazine and used the name to rechristen its network of websites as SpinMedia.
In March, the cash-strapped company under new CEO Steve Hansen laid off 50 of its 250 staffers.
Hansen said the company recently raised about $5 million in a new round of funding that followed a $15 million round in late 2012.
Still, the exodus of top execs accelerated in recent weeks. Dylan Howard, who had been editing one of the flagship websites, Celebuzz, has returned to RadarOnline. Also said to be among those exiting are Chief Operating Officer Matt Emmerson and the vice president of video programming, Jim Downs.
Mags wheelin’
Good news on the magazine front?!?
While the ad-page erosion in print has been an industry headache for five years, there was some encouraging news.
Research firm Kantar Media took a look at the tablets and print editions of 58 major magazines. It found that when tablet and print ad pages were combined, the number of ad pages actually grew by 5.3 percent in the first quarter.
During that quarter, print ad pages inched up 0.2 percent to 10,708 in the period, while tablet ad units jumped 15.9 percent, to 5,846.
“It shows that advertising remains solid,” said Mary Berner, CEO of the Association of Magazine Media. “It is not so much advertising flight as it is an advertising shift. And it is very early days for tablets.”
Flesh fracas
Gawker Media boss Nick Denton is mad because he claims he hasn’t been paid for Fleshbot, the 11-year-old porn site he sold last year to former employee Noa Gottlieb, who is also known as “Lux Alptraum,” according to court papers.
Despite the traffic it generated, Denton had long tried to keep Fleshbot at arm’s length from his other sites such as Gawker.com and sports-centric Deadspin.com because advertisers are skittish about placing ads with any company associated with porn.
Denton said that Gottlieb gave a promissory note agreeing to pay $100,000 for the name and the business, payable in four quarterly payments starting May 1, 2012, and ending Jan. 31, 2013.
“Fleshbot made none of the $25,000 payments and despite repeated requests for payment still owes Gawker $100,000 plus interest,” according to a motion filed by Denton in Supreme Court of New York.
Gottlieb, who could not be reached for comment, claimed in court papers that actions by Denton and Gawker had rendered the original promissory note null and void.
Neither Denton nor his attorney returned a call seeking comment.
SI high
Sports Illustrated said that SI.com recorded its highest traffic day ever, thanks to its exclusive interview with NBA player Jason Collins, who acknowledged being gay.
Collins, who was most recently a reserve center with the Washington Wizards, is attempting to play in the NBA, although he is not currently on any roster.
Roughly 3,713,000 people visited SI.com on Monday when the news broke. That shattered the previous one-day record of 3,663, 000 unique visitors on Feb. 9, 2010, when the end of the winter Olympics coincided with the release of that year’s SI swimsuit edition.