On the heels of the announced retirement of Essence magazine beauty and cover director, Mikki Taylor, rumors began hitting the web saying the long-standing magazine was on its way out, too.
Gawker.com initially reported on the possible closure, but the magazine’s PR director, Dana Baxter, has come out to quell the speculation; she says it’s not so.
“The magazine is not folding,” Baxter told theGrio.com. “Essence is thriving and not going anywhere. News of recent staff updates was somehow misconstrued.”
Big layoffs were announced at Essence in November, which preceded Taylor’s departure, but Baxter assures that it wasn’t a sign of a pending shutdown; she pointed to the preparation of the annual Essence Festival as evidence. The magazine’s staff is get ready for “their biggest event of the year, the Essence Music Festival,” she said.
These rumors come on the heels of VIBE magazine’s folding and relaunch in 2009 and the well-publicized reports of Johnson Publishing’s attempts to sell Ebony and Jet magazines.
Essence was founded in 1970 and currently boasts a readership of eight million. –gerald radford
