Essence says rumors of folding are untrue

Essence says rumors of folding are untrue

"A recent gawker.com post":http://gawker.com/5495707/trouble-at-essence 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":http://www.wbur.org/npr/124824243. 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":http://www.netnoir.com/2010/03/ebonyjet-com-moving-slowly-save-ebony-jet-johnson-publications/ 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.