Via AOL BlackVoices:
Bossip and Gawker are reporting that Essence Magazine, once a juggernaut for black women and fashion, is having some troubles, which are probably financial. Press sources are also reporting that the magazine used an old picture of Reggie Bush for the cover instead of doing a photo shoot. Did they need to save money that badly? More bad news for the mag is that Mikki Taylor, Essence beauty editor, has recently resigned. AtlantaPost.com also mentions that pink slips have been passed out quite frequently since November at the esteemed African American organization.
With Bossip being a gossip website, we have to wonder just how accurate the story is that Essence is almost out of cash. But Bossip mentions other prominent websites that have been suggesting the same thing. Plus, if it is true that the picture of Reggie Bush was an old one, and they are not in financial trouble, then Essence will need to explain why they couldn’t do an original photo shoot. That’s just not the style of Essence, which is known for being very classy, so that is strange news indeed.
The magazine industry has had a very difficult time since the boom of Internet publishing. According to the Publisher’s Information Bureau, the number of advertising pages in magazines dropped by 25% overall by the end of 2009. Also, the amount of total ad revenue for the industry has dropped by nearly 18%. This was a dramatic decline after the industry had already witnessed over a decade of drops in ad revenue and total ad pages. Essence Magazine seemed to be protected from the decline through their merger with Viacom, the group that also owns CNN. With this match made in heaven, many consumers expected that Essence would not join Ebony/Jet, which some believe is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.
