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J-Vibe to shut print publication and maybe online mag, as JFL sunsets

By Jacob Berkman · August 26, 2009

J-Vibe, the bimonthly print and online magazine for Jewish teenagers, will publish its last print edition in the beginning of September and then will most likely shut down its online publication -- unless another organization takes it over, according to the magazine’s editor.

That the magazine is closing is another step in the planned sunset of the struggling Jewish Family and Life, which has published several other niche publications, including Babaganewz, Sh’ma and J-Books.

The  organization’s financial struggles became apparent last year when Babaganewz, a publication aimed at young students, announced that it would cease its print publication and continue as an online-only e-zine.

[UPDATE: JFL’s executive director, Amir Cohen, tells The Fundermentalist that the organization’s board decided April 30 to sunset the organization.

“The board saw what was coming in 2010, and we responsibly and respectfully tried to fulfill every single term of every single grant we had outstanding and tried to land everyone of our projects and are working on it every single day," he said. "We operated with most repspet care and compassion for employees in the event that any of them may not land."

There is some good news, he said.]

The editor of JBooks, Ken Gordon, will take over that publication on his own, according to the JBooks Web site, and JFL’s othertwo publications are in very serious merger discussions with other organizations.

But, according to J-Vibe’s editor, Lindsey Silken, JFL has not yet been able to find a publisher for her magazine.

“J-Vibe was a little trickier, being that it was our largest publication,” Silken told the Fundermentalist. “After Baba went out of print, we were the last publication that was really Web and print. We are not only a six-times-a-year publication, but also a Web site that is an entirely different publication that is updated more than once a month. It’s trickier to find a match. That said, there is a good chance it would succeed in an online-only format, and the hope is that we will find another organization to take us over.”

J-Vibe’s two editors, including Silken, were notified earlier this month that they would be let go on Thursday.

If another organization decides to pick up the online magazine, there is a chance some could be brought back.

Cohen seems confident that J-Vibe will find another home at least for its online publication.

It is not yet clear when JFL will cease operations.