VIBE’s relaunch issue — featuring an exclusive interview with Captain Slapahoe Chris Brown — hits newsstands everywhere Dec. 8.

Glad VIBE’s back….but we’re not sure about putting Ike Turner’s grandson on the first new issue. Just sayin’…..

After folding in late June due to financial issues, Quincy Jones-founded urban mag VIBE and its Web site have been resurrected by InterMedia Partners, Reuters reported Wednesday.

The new publishers plan to reopen VIBE.com within the next month and reintroduce VIBE to fan and subscribers as a print quarterly before the end of the year.

If a magazine shuts down unexpectedly, does it have a duty to issue a refund to its subscribers?

At least one former VIBE lover thinks so.
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Quincy Jones is distraught that VIBE, the urban interest magazine he founded in 1993, folded on Tuesday, after nearly 16 years in the business. The music mogul and superproducers says he may attempt to buy back the brand he created but later sold — but don’t expect VIBE to return as a print magazine.

Q’s looking to take over the web.

“I’m trying to buy my magazine back now,” the star — who is still recovering from the death of his dear friend Michael Jackson — told EbonyJet.com in a Tuesday phone call. “They just messed my magazine all up, but I’m gonna get it back. You better believe it, I’m’a take it online because print and all that stuff is over.”

“We gotta get into the 21st century you know,” he added. “Print and all that stuff is over, we gotta remember that. The Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Post Intelligencer. The Miami Herald. They’re over the same way as the record business. We have got to get into this century.”

Say buh-bye to VIBE Magazine. The urban-music publication founded in 1993 by legendary producer Quincy Jones is closing its doors. Multiple sources in and outside the magazine industry tell the Daily Finance that VIBE is shutting down at close of business Tuesday.

“We will be making a statement by the end of the day. That’s all I can say at this point,” chief financial officer Angela Zucconi told the site this morning.

UPDATE:

It’s a wrap for VIBE.

The staff was told of the publication’s closure during a meeting at 2 PM EST on Tuesday.

“On behalf of the VIBE CONTENT staff, it is with great sadness, and with heads held high, that we leave the building today,” Editor-in-chief Danyel Smith said in a statement. “We were assigning and editing a Michael Jackson tribute issue when we got the news. It’s a tragic week overall, but as the doors of VIBE Media Group close, on the eve of the magazine’s 16th anniversary, it’s a sad day for music, for hip-hop in particular, and for the millions of readers and users who have loved and who continue to love the VIBE brand. We thank you, we have served you with joy, pride and excellence, and we will miss you.”

Irv Gotti recently addressed Eminem’s placement on VIBE’s “Best Rapper Alive” list and questioned the rapper’s emcee skills as compared to Jay-Z and Ja Rule.

Ok, we were with you on Jay, Irv, but you’d rank Ja Rule above Em? Blasphemy!

Claiming his opinion is not based on their previous beef, Irv explained his gripe in an interview with MTV News.

“Vibe did a thing and they had him as the No. 1 rapper,” Gotti said. “Shit like that kinda pisses me off. You know why? Because let’s take Eminem’s records. Watch my analogy. Eminem is a great artist, no doubt. He puts words together, he’s witty, a smart lyricist, a great lyricist. But how can we say the guy is the best rapper alive? Look at Hov…I been to battles with [DMX], Jay and Ja, that was some real shit. Homie, you wouldn’t been able to survive…I say take Eminem, and let him say ‘Hard Knock Life.’ Still hot. Now, let’s have Jay-Z say the ‘We Made You’ song. They would laugh him out the fucking building…It would be over.”

Eminem covers VIBE’s Second Annual Real Rap Issue.

T.I. covers the April issue of VIBE, on newsstands everywhere March 17.

Keyshia Cole and her mom, Frankie, cover the March 2009 issue of VIBE.

Platinum-selling singer Keyshia Cole is gracing the first ever Style issue of VIBE Magazine.

Pick up the March 2009 issue, on newsstands everywhere February 17!