Twist.
I'm a homegrow that knows a little bit about everything and everybody.
You know, if you don't lie about that. Right, Hey, y'all, what's up.
It's Laura Rosa and this is the Latest with Laura Rosa. This is your daily dig on all things pop culture, entertainment, news, and all of the conversations that shake the room.
Baby.
Now we are back again with another episode of the Latest. In this episode, I really.
Want you guys to sound off.
I love it when we talk about things here on the podcast and then I see you tweeting me about it. I see you, you know, posting the podcast and talking about it in your Instagram stories, everywhere you can talk. I need to hear from you, guys, l O R E N l O R O s A on social media because I have a question to asks. How do you guys feel about the legendary Black You know, it is one of the black staple magazines and platforms. Vibe
Magazine becoming a part of Rolling Stone. And when I say becoming a part of Rolling Stone, what I mean is Billboard announced this week that Rolling Stone will be joining forces with Vibe.
Now.
Vibe will bolster rolling Stones hip hop coverage and allow the brands to go deeper into the genre. Vibe will also print special collectors' editions of the magazine and launch a new interview series as spotlights in depth conversations with the most important figures, ranging from musicians to superstar athletes and fashion icons. Now, the CEO of Rolling Stone said, we are thrilled to announce that Vibe is joining forces
with Rolling Stone. This historical team up will enable Rolling Stone to level up the publications hip hop and R and B coverage, allowing Rolling Stone to dive deeper into the culture. As a part of this move, rolling Stone will invest in Vibe across video, podcasts, long form journalism, social media, and exponential opportunities, all areas where Rolling Stone is a market leader. Vi will continue to power cultural conversations and re establish itself as a driving force for
commentary and reporting. Our goal, the CEO continues, is to continue the mission that Vibe was founded on, while leveraging
Rolling Stone to amplify its presence across all platforms. So essentially, what is happening here is like when, for instance, when an entrepreneur creates a product, builds that product up up, up up up, Rihanna INFINTI, well, it's a little different because you know Rihanna and Rihanna, but builds that product up up, up up up in a way and then decides to partner with a bigger you know, kind of like almost like a distribution deal for a music Artisty
you decide to partner with a h a company, a platform, a home that has more resources readily available, has more you know, financial resources readily available, so that you're able to then take what you build built and not just make it bigger, but scale it better as far as you know what you're outputting.
So to me, there's two folds of this.
On one hand, the first thing I thought of when I saw this was why is Rolling Stone and black people business?
And I get it.
Outlets like Rolling Stone, I mean they cover black people,
black talent. You know, that's a thing. But historically we know that those outlets, the Vibes, the Ebonies, the Jets, the Essence magazines, those outlets they're ours, right, I mean, but you do have the fact that like BT, which is you know, black entertainment television is under paramount and you know at one point it was Viacom, and those are not black companies, But I don't know, this felt a little different, and maybe because it is editorial, maybe
because it is you know, the conversation in our vibe is just I don't know, it's just different.
And be really honest with you guys as well.
Prior to this, I don't know much about vibes partnerships and you know, who they were working with, who they weren't working with. But this was just loud, it was big. It was everywhere when it dropped because Rolling Stone is such a it's such a relevant brand and pop culture. So that was the first thing I thought, and then
I read a little bit more. Oh and also I started seeing, you know, there were a few journalists that I follow that once this announcement came out, they posted tweets like, hey, you know, today is my last day with Vibe magazine because of the Rolling Stone Vibe merger. And I mean, I didn't see anything bad from them, but I did see that as well.
So that was my first thought.
And then I'm on my timeline on X and all I see are journalists because some of these people I don't know, I just follow because they tweet out the stories that they cover or you know, they're tweeting different news and I follow news everywhere, That's just what I do. But I'm seeing, like, I mean, like an influx of because of the Vibe and Rolling Stone merger. Because of the Vibe and Rolling Stone merger, over and over and over again, I now no longer have my job. Thank
you for the three years of this. And you could tell that, you know, people were keeping it super like there's nothing we could do. We was laid off, you know what I'm saying. But I'm like, oh, ouch, wow, okay, So that made me to be like, am I supposed to be apprehensive about this? Am I supposed to be happy for Vibe Magazine about this? People are losing their job. It feels like Vibe is about to be gentrified, Like what is going on here? And I come from, you know,
working with major outlets before TMZ. I worked in a fashion closet at Cosmopolitan magazine. Like I've only ever known outlets that were not black centered.
But had to be inclusive because they just had to be.
And it's just different like now, you know, working with the Breakfast Club and being here on the Black Effect Podcast network is different when you're at something that is for us by us and even if not like fully owned right because Breakfast Club is an iHeart, you know show. It's black focused and black centric and I work with black people.
It's very different than.
Anything I've ever experienced in my work career, my work life. So it made me think about what the new tone and the work energy vibe will be. And I started thinking about that because that tone and that energy and that culture will pour out and will reflect and the content that they put out. And I think with the way that the landscape is changing in media and what's important and how people are digesting news and opinion and what they care about, people got to really believe it
to even want to support. And I think those legacy magazines, I've always wondered what was the what's the fix for them? I think Essence Magazine has definitely figured out how to reinvent their voice a bit, like I love it when they do the thread breakdowns whenever something happens, like you can always count on that, whether it's on Twitter or it's a swipe through on Instagram. Their social media team really stepped it up. Their covers really stepped it up.
And I don't mean stepped it up in a way
of like they weren't ever good. I mean as a legacy media outlet when in times where things are changing, you gotta reinvent, you gotta connect and reach people differently, especially today, because there's somebody right now, at this very moment, turning on their camera on their phone, about to post a video with an opinion or reporting of something that can potentially go viral and become the number one outlet of whatever genre that is, and all they did was.
Turn on their phone.
Meanwhile, you have full you know, editorial teams at places like Vibe, Jet, Ebony, all of these essence, all these places, and they now have to compete with that person.
Things are just different now.
So I've always thought, like, you know, what is the answer for our legacy magazines because with me, I want to be in that middle space. I always want to understand that middle space of like, Okay, here's all the fly stuff that our legacy magazines were known for, here's where everything is now, here's you know, with the focus of news should be, and here's how you bring it all together. I've always like that's always been like my vision for content of like what was being done before us.
That's stuck and made these really big careers, whether it's actors, journalists, reporters, personality with what is where are things now? And how do we mess that together? So on the other side, I say all that to say on the other side, when I saw this, I was like, Okay, Vibe Magazine can now.
I don't know, maybe it's.
Be I don't know what the issues were internally that made them feel like they needed this merger. But and I'm sure you know there'll be more coming out on that. But now they can, they can hire more people. But dang people ooh lost their jobs. Now Vibe can be a part of the conversation, you know, potentially, because it still matters what you put out, but you know, now Vibe has a large platform partner who can position their
content in a way where it reaches more eyes. And then I started to think, like, but do we wanted to reach all those eyes? Like why can't we gate keep what's ours and it still be just as big and as effective as.
As Golden Like why not?
Like like the gentrification conversation, like why does why do why do our neighborhoods have to be gentrified for the price to go up?
That's how I thought about this.
It's like a catch twenty two of like, I want, you know, us to be able to get the resources we need, move on do better in business. And you got a partner with where the business, the money and the doing better is happening. Black, white, green, yellow, doesn't matter, you know, the color of the of the person or the people.
Or the company doing it. Businesses business.
But I don't know it just I'm kind of stuck in the middle here because as a business woman, I understand and I'm like, oh, that was kind of smart for them, and not even just for them, it was smart for Rolling Stone because I think one of the best things that a company can do right who doesn't understand something is.
God and hire somebody who do.
And hiring a black writer or two or three or five doesn't make you like, yes, rolling Stone Magazine has a prestige to it. But with black culture leads media a trend all of the things period. You need a real strong force in trust. You need brand identity and trust in that area to be able to be a
part of that conversation in a real way. And obviously rolling Stone is like, okay, we cover you know, black music, black things, but they wanted more validity and more trust for whatever their reasoning was, too so, And I mean, now it's Vibe. We trust Vibe, We've seen Vibe, we've grew up on Vibe, we've grew up reading Vibe. So it's going to be there or is it. I don't need y'all to answer these questions for me. Was this a great business.
Move by Vibe magazine? Yes? Or no? And again?
And I'm not even I mean, I guess you do got to talk about like business as far as like numbers and things, right, like, you know, where does this put them budget wise, you know, per quarter per year to be able to put out products and projects and all these things. But I would even ask the question just simply as a consumer of media, because it was a shock for me to see Vibe partnering with Rolling Stone. And I think it's because our legacy see magazines have always stood on were gonna.
Figure this out. We got it, We're cool, We're gonna figure this out.
But hey, maybe that's why, you know, it's been so hard for a lot of our legacy magazines to take the forefront of conversation the way that they.
Did some years ago. Let me know how y'all feeling. I want to know was.
It a good idea? Was it not a good idea? Were you shocked when you saw the news? Will you continue to support Vibe and what they do? I honestly don't see a reason for us not to. I think it was a shock and I was trying to figure out, like, am I supposed to like this?
Like what is happening?
Is it's alright, collab, it's hey business or girl, you losing your black cart because you support it? But at the same time, I mean, I think people's feelings are valid because, like I told y'all, I was watching it was like a mass exodus of people talking about they lost their jobs. And I'm like, well, why y'all getting rid of the people? The black people say it ain't got no jobs, just supposed to help the people get the job. Let me know what y'all think. It's the
latest with Laurna Rose. Are getting the streets, get in the tweets, talk to me outside, were outside, were outside outside At the end of the day, you guys could be anywhere with anybody talking about all of these things, which you choose to be right here with me. Every single time my Lowriders. I appreciate you guys for that. I'll see y'all in my next episode.