BIG IDEAS

This strongly-worded e-mail landed in my mailbox today from an executive at BET, who just resigned. I double checked with the source and checked another. It is, according to all sources, legit. Many people leave a job with a fantasy of such a letter in mind. Few take the opportunity. BET, for its part, certainly deserves the space to counter-attack, and I’ll give it to them should they decide to. But for now, read and either be surprised, affirmed or ambivalent:

To friends, colleagues and those that should know,

As of today (September 8, 2009) I am no longer the Executive Editor of Music at BET.com.

Upon entering the position at BET I said that I needed one year to see what really went on inside the belly of the beast. I needed 365 days to sleep with the enemy and infiltrate the system. One year to see if they REALLY wanted change at BET.

As someone who has been critical of BET for many years, it surprised many that I would leave my post at HipHopDX last year to take a position at BET. But it was an opportunity I absolutely had to take. I could no longer be critical of this company without accepting the opportunity to change it when given. Although I was hired to bring about change, I was systematically shut down. I wasn’t hired to make noise, I was hired to be silenced.

The truth of the matter is that everything that you thought was wrong with BET is true.

Over the past year I’ve seen a lot to reinforce my position that BET is too far gone in the negative to turn into a positive. We have all always thought the worst, but to actually see it in action is another thing in its entirety. The unprofessionalism, the tom foolery, the favors, the misappropriation of resources, the bad ideas that reinforce negative stereotypes, the emasculation of men, the meetings that break down in full fledged cursing battles, the unpaid overtime, the tears from employees scared for their underpaid and overworked positions and ultimately the unwillingness to change are all harsh realities that I’ve witnessed firsthand.

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From design website, UNBEIGE:

While times have been tough for starchitects lately, from Richard Rogers‘ projects disappearing to Zaha Hadid’s and Norman Foster’s mass layoffs, it sounds as though rising star David Adjaye has it the worst. Despite his recent conquests including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, landing two libraries in Washington DC, and everyone still going gah-gah over his Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Building Design reports that his nine year old company is deeply in the red. Following a number of canceled jobs, Adjaye now owes at least a million pounds to creditors, forcing him to lay off staffers and seek council on getting the company back in the black. What’s more, the starchitect even put £400,000 of his own money to keep things semi-stable. Yet while the company is suffering, Adjaye seems confident that closing its doors isn’t a concern: “We have enough work on our books and we’re repaying our [Company Voluntary Arrangement] very well so we’re in a good place.” Elsewhere in Building Design, Amanda Baillieu says that the issue isn’t so much with Adjaye’s finances, it’s working with public building projects and having his central office located in the UK that are the larger problems.

As reported by Richard Prince:

Vibe magazine, the best-known and most respected magazine of the hip-hop generation, is folding immediately after 16 years, Steve Aaron, Vibe Media Group’s chief executive officer, announced on Tuesday.

“It is with a heavy heart that I share some tough news, VMG is closing down effective today, June 30 due to lack of additional financial investments,” Aaron told staffers in a memo.

“Unfortunately, over the last several months, a confluence of events has obviously posed VMG to exceedingly serious challenges.

“The collapse of the capital markets has impacted us greatly. Over the past several months, we have actively pursued investment resources while working intensively with our bank to find a solution. But the deal market right now remains very poor and at the end of the day, the lack of investment resources to restructure the huge debt on our small company has made this outcome become a reality.

“The print advertising collapse hit VIBE hard, especially as key ad categories like automotive and fashion, which represented the bulk of our top 10 advertisers, have stopped advertising or gone out of business. It’s also unfortunate that in a recession many companies reduce the multicultural campaigns. These facts, coupled with the continuing decline of the music industry not to mention the newsstand wholesaler consolidation in early 2009 all negatively impacted our business in a significant way.

“The relentless economic situation has depressed our growth initiatives on the digital front. To be clear, VMG has made significant improvement in this part of our business, but not at the accelerated pace required to offset the devastating effects of the most severe recession in our lifetime and the accompanying print losses.”

Well, not really with him, but in a bedroom in his new luxury resort in Liberia, the newly launched  RLJ Kendeja Resort & Villas.

According to The Guardian, one of my all time favorite magazines, THE FACE, might be up for a comeback either in print or digital or some combination of both.

If true, this is wonderful news. THE FACE was by far the publication that made me absolutely fall in love with magazines. I was kinda already there, having been roped in by mags like Andy Warhol’s INTERVIEW and ID, but THE FACE did it. Something about it felt completely me, completely of my mindset. That’s what you look for in a mag, something to teach you a few things, reflect your style and interests and make you want to stretch your boundaries. Does your favorite mag do that for you?

A sad goodbye to yet another favorite. This time, Conde Nast’s business magazine, Portfolio. After 21 issues as the Vanity Fair of business coverage, the title has bitten the proverbial dust, something many people thought would not happen because it was very much a point of pride for Conde Nast chairman SI Newhouse. Then again, it was bleeding money and likely was related to the reason Conde Nast mags DOMINO and MEN’s VOGUE got the ax first.

Say it ain’t so. And since it’s April Fool’s Day, maybe it ain’t, but according to a number of sources, and second-hand via GAWKER, KING Magazine, that brash bastion of booty has folded.

Count me as one who will mourn. That Stacey Dash cover from last year is still under a sweater in my closet. But (and that’s a Big Butt!), all the complaints about its objectification of women aside (and what magazines, including women’s magazines, don’t objectify women?) KING was actually quite enjoyable as a page to page read.

I was never into the acquisition of depreciating toys and goodies, so the whole rims and sneakers fetish thing was lost on me completely. But I could still appreciate the magazine’s appeal to the people who were, and I was able to enjoy it as well.

From a Black media perspective I tend to take the stand that every Black publication, website, radio station, whatever, that helps validate the Black community as a viable consumer market helps everyone in the Black media space, and the loss of any publication that effectively made that case is a loss worth worrying about.

THIS IS NOT GOOD.

Sure, it was kinda fun looking from the sidelines to see which so-so magazines have fallen by the wayside over the last months, but now it’s hitting too close to home when my very favorite disappears. Men’s Vogue was one thing, but BEST LIFE is a pill too bitter to swallow. It was easily the best men’s service magazine out there - with the possible exception of its big brother, Men’s Health.

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Depending on who you talk to, this is either the coolest Bruce Lee video ever or a digitally manipulated commercial by Nokia. No matter how much you love Bruce Lee, there just ain’t no way in hell this is real.