XXL is a hip hop magazine, published by Harris Publications. In December 2006, XXL took over the struggling hip hop producer and DJ magazine Scratch re-branding it as XXL Presents Scratch Magazine. Other titles with limited runs have been launched under the XXL brand, including Hip-Hop Soul, Eye Candy and Shade45. XXL has released many other special projects including tour programs, mixtapes and exclusive DVDs. XXL also maintains a popular website, which provides daily hip hop news, original content and content from the magazine.The hip hop and rap market have trouble with the fact that more and more people want to download (illegally) mixtapes and other music and the magazines are not getting the steady rise in sales they need so the companies have to adapt and make new ways to reach there demographic in terms of using the internet and releasing exclusive reports and interviews to keep there audience interested.

Vibe is a music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip-hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down production in Summer 2009, Vibe was purchased by InterMedia Partners and is now issued every-other month with double covers, with a larger online presence. The magazine's target demographic is predominantly young, urban followers of hip-hop culture.

The magazine owed its success to featuring a broader range of interests than its closest competitors The Source and XXL which focus more narrowly on rap music, or the rock & pop-centric Rolling Stone and Spin. As of June 30, 2012, Vibe had a circulation of 300,943.From what I cant see hip hop and rap magazines go through a steady period and then they tend to struggle until a new investor comes and takes over because of the fact that more and more the population is moving away from magazines and into internet based reporting and blogging which is a bullet in the side for most magazines like vibe and like double XL because there having to spend more money in areas other than there main focus which is there magazine

How will they survive?! Whilst researching the magazine companies for my particular genre

I have come across the fact that its getting harder and harder for the magazines to stay afloat in the printing industry because we all now have smart phones and 3G so people are wanting more internet based blogging and reporting but the trouble is the magazines are finding it hard to make profit or even any money at all with the changing market because there not adapting or finding new niches in the market to ensure they don't fall face first with the clear decline in the printing industry.

Vibe and double XL have recently introduced web pages but is it not a little bit too late? because some magazines have even resorting to making Iphone apps and android apps so that they can maintain at least a percentage of there readership so in my eyes to keep up with the changing market magazine companies need to try and focus on how they are going to make them self relevant even when printing has completely declined.

My reader profile Reader ship chart

male 15-24

female 15-20

male-female 20>

The readership for my magazine will consist of predominantly males and females 15-20 that are interested in hip-hop rap and r’n’b.The fact that I am doing a music magazine means that I have to focus on the people who will buy this magazine for its musical content and seen them self as apart of the in-group that the magazine covers

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