Hip hop mag Vibe is back from the dead — and with a digital bent. A group led by Leo Hindery’s PE firm InterMedia Partners and its luxury publisher Uptown Media is picking up the magazine, and more important, its website. Vibe.com is the linchpin of the plans described in the WSJ : reopen the site in coming weeks, publish a print edition at the end of the year with and then go quarterly. No financial terms but maybe CapitalSource Bank, which foreclosed on previous owner Wicks Group, is paying them a dollar.
The monthly and its site folded unceremoniously in late June after Wick was unable to refinance its debt and the bank foreclosed. That was followed by claims that Quincy Jones would buy back the title he launched nearly two decades ago and sold to Wicks in 2006. (Perhaps he could still come back as a “founder” with a major voice in the magazine.)
The acquisition gives InterMedia more to market to advertisers targeting African-Americans. The Journal says the site and the mag will be packaged with Uptown magazine; ads for the site will be sold by Blackrock Digital. Editorially, they’ll go wider than hip-hop, which should help.

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