Black Publishing Company Closes Doors - and Three Magazines
by George E. Curry
NNPA Editor-in-Chief

WASHINGTON (NNPA) - Vanguarde Media, the company that shut down Emerge: Black America's Newsmagazine and BET Weekend, a Sunday supplement that was second only to Ebony magazine in circulation, to make room for Savoy, a new feature-oriented publication that targeted the Black middle class, has filed for bankruptcy.

The filing kills Savoy and two other magazines, throwing more than 75 full-time employees out of work and leaving fewer places for Black writers, photographers and illustrators to showcase their work.

Keith Clinkscales, the CEO of Vanguarde, made the unexpected announcement to magazine employees during a meeting in New York just two days before Thanksgiving.In a statement issued later that day, Clinkscales said, ''Today Vanguarde Media regrets to announce a decision to cease publication of HONEY, SAVOY and heart&soul magazines and to liquidate the assets of the company. While this is no easy decision for any of us, our most recent efforts at securing funding proved unsuccessful, and we are no longer able to sustain operations.''

All three magazines had a respectable number of readers. Honey had a paid circulation of 387,999, heart&soul had 359,215 and Savoy had a listed circulation of 302,070, according to a national auditing agency.

Advertising revenues in the magazine industry have declined in recent years, forcing many magazines to decrease the number of pages they produce, merge or go out of business. In the case of Vanguarde, their financial woes were compounded by the decision to simultaneously publish three, and sometimes four, struggling magazines.

At different times, the magazines were redefining themselves, confusing some readers, turning off long-time subscribers while attracting some news ones.
Some journalists worry that raising capital for new publications, already a difficult task, may become harder in the wake of Vanguarde’s failure.

Yanick Rice Lamb, the former editor-in-chief of both heart&soul and BET Weekend, said new Black magazines can succeed if they are infused with what she calls “patient money.”

Rice Lamb explains, “Investors must understand that it may take a while before a magazine breaks even or turns a profit. You hear so many stories of entrepreneurs starting magazines that are under-financed and investors pulling the plug prematurely. Magazine publishing is a capital-intensive business, and it’s not for the faint-hearted.” Lack of sustained funding was only part of Vanguarde’s difficulties.

Emerge, BET Weekend and heart&soul magazines were owned by Black Entertainment Television until 2000. At the time, unknown to the public, BET head Robert L. Johnson was positioning his company to be sold for $3 billion to Viacom. In the process, Johnson transferred operational authority over some of his subsidiaries to others. BET's magazine division was placed in the hands of Clinkscales, who had recently formed Vanguarde Media with the goal of quickly building an African-American media conglomerate. When BET was eventually sold, Viacom did not buy its magazines, restaurants or other non-television properties.

Clinkscales closed Emerge and BET Weekend shortly after taking over in 2000 and changed the focus of heart&soul magazine. According the industry experts, Clinkscales’ strategy was to make inroads into Essence older readership with heart&soul and capture part of its younger audience with Honey magazine.

Rice Lamb disagrees with that strategy. “Under Vanguarde, heart&soul evolved from a health and fitness magazine to a lifestyle publication with some health and fitness in it,” she recalls. “What made heart&soul unique from the outset was its focus on healthy living – especifically health and fitness. It was the clear leader and authority in this area, which is why so many other publications scrambled to enhance their health and fitness editorial along with pursuing advertisers in these categories.”

Florestine Purnell, managing editor of Emerge magazine, says it was also a mistake to close the only national Black newsmagazine.

“The Black community supported Emerge,” she said. “Like most political magazines, it did not have huge circulation numbers but its circulation was larger than the better-funded and better-promoted Nation, New Republic and Weekly Standard magazines. Emerge and BET Weekend were closed to make way for Vanguarde’s new products.”

Along the way, Vanguarde bought Impact magazine, an urban music trade magazine that Clinkscales thought could attract companies that normally advertise in Black Enterprise magazine. Bleeding financially, Clinkscales quietly closed Impact after it had no impact.

Rice Lamb, who now teaches journalism at Howard University, says Vanguarde’s collapse does not mean Black readers are disinterested in quality magazines.

“Readers want more, not less. They always have,” explains Rice Lamb. “We don't have a critical mass of magazines with variety and depth. A few years ago, I thought we were moving in that direction. As of late, we've had a lot of the same-old, same-old. For example, we have a disproportionate number of entertainment magazines.''

More than 17,000 consumer magazines are published in the United States, according to the American Society of Magazine Editors. Only four Black national magazines – Ebony, Jet, Essence and Black Enterprise – have been around at least a quarter of a century.

Purnell of Emerge fears the closing of Vanguarde might send the wrong signal to serious African-American readers. “Black readers will be confused, as well as surprised and saddened by this development,” she says. “They’ll be confused because of the promises made to them, which some felt were not realized. They were told to expect content that was relevant to the intelligent, upwardly mobile African-American readers. A lot of former Emerge subscribers who were sent Savoy were disappointed to get a ‘life-style’ magazine. Now they won’t even get that. The sad part is that readers come up empty-handed again, so they may also be angry.”

Rice Lamb and Purnell agree that a Black newsmagazine can still be successful if properly funded, aggressively promoted and given enough time to grow its circulation.

“The need for a cutting-edge news magazine is greater than ever,” Purnell states. “It’s crucial that Black America have a publication that gives voice to the crucial issues and developments in these troubled times. The mainstream news magazines may touch on the issues that are important to African-Americans, but there is a need for a publication that gives full attention – and a swift kick when necessary – to decision makers and policies that impact the Black community.”

One personal note: I was editor-in-chief of Emerge: Black America's News magazine when Vanguarde took over from BET and closed the magazine that I had edited for seven of its 10 years. In the days immediately following the shutdown, I was vocal in my public my criticism of Vanguarde's decision to close Emerge while pretending that it was merely being placed on a ''hiatus.''

Over time, I met separately with Clinkscales and Roy Johnson; we discussed what each of us had done wrong during that tense transition period and wished each other well. That did not alter my view that it was poor decision to close Emerge, but I acknowledged Clinkscales' right to run his company as he saw fit.

Johnson, an accomplished journalist and author, returned to Sports Illustrated a year ago as an assistant managing editor, and was succeeded by Ron Stodghill II, a Time magazine correspondent.

As disappointed as I was that Vanguarde closed Emerge, I take no joy in seeing six Black magazines killed in the wake of Vanguarde's failure: Emerge, BET Weekend, Savoy, heart&soul, Honey and Impact. We've always had too few magazines. Now, we have even fewer.