The iconic brand may be folding its magazine, according to Gawker.com, proving that even the popular go-to mag for black women for nearly 40 years can’t withstand the tides of the recession.

A press release went out recently announcing the retirement of Beauty and Cover Director Mikki Taylor who’s been at Essence for 30 years. We also found out that a major assistant as well the entire fashion team was let go on Thursday.

And after a huge amount of layoffs last November, 6 more people “left” just last week. One was major Beauty editor Pamela Edwards Christiani – who is now over at People mag.

And we’re not going to even go in about the stock photo (instead of an actual photoshoot) the mag decided to use of Reggie Bush for their February cover. If a large magazine owned by Time Inc. can’t afford to do a photo shoot for their cover story then who can? Time will tell if Essence goes the way of Vibe and become an online-only pub.

Print everywhere is suffering, but is one of the only journalistic print mags for young black fashion and beauty savvy women about to be a goner?

another one bites the dust... maybe it can be saved? I mean, it IS Essence...

sammij said:

Maybe but letting go of Mikki Taylor isn't a good sign.

I stopped subscribing to 'Essence Magazine' years ago, it all became a bit redundant and in the late years it read like every other women magazine... Cosmopolitan.

Even so.....

More than ever I think most magazine subscription numbers have to be high and consistent via physical copy or online. I subscribe to a couple of guitar/music magazines and on average the cost seven dollars and some change on newsstands. In years past if I allowed one to laps ... no big deal I'd buy but know it's more cost effective for me keep my subscription up to date.


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[Edited 3/19/10 8:41am]

So that's why I got my Essence magazines late in November and December. Ahh man. I love Essence. That's the one magazine I look forward to receiving each month.

I used to subscribe to Essence years ago. Sorry to hear the news, but everything is online now, so it was bound to happen. It amazes me that folks are STILL starting new magazines tho despite the struggling industry.