A recent gawker.com post has the internet abuzz with speculation over whether Essence Magazine is in danger of folding. The African-American female-focused magazine saw big layoffs in November, and yesterday it announced the retirement of its longtime beauty and cover director Mikki Taylor.
But according to the magazine, there’s no trouble at Essence. The rumor took the magazine’s public relations director Dana Baxter by surprise when she first saw it online.
“The magazine is not folding,” Baxter told theGrio.com. “Essence is thriving and not going anywhere. News of recent staff updates was somehow misconstrued.”
Gawker’s post also mentioned that some of the magazine’s “Fashion PR people” were worried because the entire fashion team went “AWOL.” But Baxter said this too was untrue.
“We have a fully functional fashion team that is working on an Essence 40th anniversary commemorative issue for September,” said Baxter. She added that the magazine’s staff was also preparing for “their biggest event of the year, the Essence Music Festival.”
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 Magazine was founded in 1970 and currently boasts a readership of 8 million.