Soul Magazines Hot or Not???

In recent years, the popularity of magazines that are particularly soul genred have declined, with magazines such as Ebony and Jet taking a tumbling in profits. Magazines such as Jet nevertheless still maintain support from publishes, with the magazine itself being taken over only in 2010 by Johnson Publishing Co. However, the question still remains as to why these magazines are losing thier popularity. It would seem that soul magazines have too specific a target audience. For example, magazines such as Ebony are aimed at mostly black audiences, therefore lacking the purpose and the audience specifications to appeal to the modern audiences. This is an areas where my magazine can make a real difference and change the outlook of soul magazines, particularly in the UK.

Magazines are dependant upon advertising to increase their profits and yet over the last few finanical quarters Jet has decreased 15% in ad pages within the magazine. Despite this, EBony magazine has still maintained a great circultation within the US with 1,285,865 copies sold in 2011.
Ebony magazine, i think has been one of the most successful magazines so far. The magazine started in 1945 and has now become a monthly released magazine that is focused on Black politicans, celebrities and mostly musicians, particularly in it photography. With an upbeat, contemporary style, the magazine frequently makes headlines not only in the mainstream press but in public blogging.

Soul magazines, particularly in the UK are virtually non existant, in terms of popularity, as they are heavily based on a single target audience and they are all made upon the presumption that only a particular kind of person can be interested in soul music. But that is one of the things i love about soul music as a genre. The music itself can reach to anyone and cannot be specified so easily. I know a wide group of people who love soul music and come from a range of different backgrounds. In my magazine i am going to try and base it to appeal to everyone.

The most common magazine that encoporates soul music within its content is VIBE magazine, which has gained its success due to a wider range of topics and interests for its readers, rather than its competitors. In June 30, 2012, Vibe had a circulation of 300,943, of which 202,439 was paid, and 98,504 was not paid. Because of its popularity, it gains a large advertising profit, ranging from fashion houses to record companies. Not only does it gain a large advertising profit but it also manipulates its popularity by further releasing hip hop focused books and holding an annual music based award ceremony to further enhance profits and expand the brand.


I feel that the UK is lacking the circulation and enjoyment of soul music, particularly within media, as there are very few soul related music magazine. The most successful magazine so far ( i feel) is SoulCulture. There is no doubt that soul/ RnB magazine cannot be popular given that the US has had great success in producing magazines such as Ebony Vibe and Soul Culture. Additionally there have been previous attempts at releasing a soul magazine, for example Soul Underground which was a Uk based magazine that began in 1987 yet was disbanded in 1991. However their main problem is that it was entirely focused towards the black community, excluding any other potential audiences,which is something that magazines such as Soul Culture have avoided.