In 2000, Time said Emerge was "the nation's best black newsmagazine for the past seven years"[3] the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described it as "the premier source for intellectual discussion on issues affecting African-Americans",[4] and the New York Amsterdam News wrote that "it had no rival for cutting edge news for and about the black community".

In its first issue, Ames described Emerge's target audience: "As the collective effort of the Civil Rights Movement dissolved legal racial barriers, sustained individual efforts have resulted in a growing list of 'firsts' in achievement as black professionals have pushed to new heights and into new fields.... Emerge is a magazine designed to meet the needs of this new, affluent generation, a generation that assumes different kinds of responsibilities along with the new opportunities and freedoms it enjoys.

[10] At the end of its first year of publication, USA Today wrote that Emerge had a paid circulation of 105,000, with 50,000 issues distributed free to members of black professional organizations and fraternities—"although not the same 50,000 each month".

[11] USA Today described the readers of Emerge as "the underserved upper-middle class segment of the audience, the Cliff and Claire Huxtables", referring to the affluent couple from The Cosby Show.

Drawing African-American journalists from the top newspapers in the United States, Curry replaced the magazine's staff.

[17] During the first nine months of 1994, newsstand sales of Emerge increased 46 percent, and Curry told the Bay State Banner in February 1995 that the magazine's circulation might double over the next two years.