media
Jim Spanfeller, CEO of parent company G/O Media, said in an employee memo: “Our business model…was not consistent with Jezebel’s.”
Jezebel, a feminist US news site, was shut down by its owners on Thursday. 23 people were laid off and there were no plans to resume publishing the website.
G/O Media, which owns Jezebel and other websites such as Gizmodo and The Onion, announced the closure in a memo to employees seen by the Guardian.
“Unfortunately, our business model and the audiences we serve on our network did not align with those of Jezebel,” G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller wrote in the memo sent to employees Thursday morning.
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“And when that became clear, we started looking for a new, perhaps better home that could give Jezebel a path forward. It became a personal mission for Lea Goldman, who worked tirelessly on the project and spoke to over two dozen potential buyers.
“It’s a testament to Jezebel’s legacy and a real testament to the fact that so many players have hired us. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to find a new home for Jez.”
In response to the shutdown, the Writers Guild of America-East, which represents G/O Media employees, released a statement condemning Spanfeller.
“A pillar of fearless journalism and important cultural commentary since 2007, Jezebel has left an indelible mark on the media landscape,” the statement said, before adding: “A well-run company would have turned away from an advertising model, but instead.” They conclude the brand completely due to its strategic and commercial inability. Jezebel was a good website.”
The closure and layoffs come at a difficult time for U.S. journalism.
On Thursday, Vice Media Group announced it would lay off a number of employees, six months after laying off more than 100 people in April. Deadline reported that a number of Vice News shows would not be renewed, meaning some employees would lose their jobs.
Vice, once a media industry giant, filed for bankruptcy in May and was acquired by a consortium of organizations following an auction.
In October, the Washington Post announced plans to cut 240 jobs through a voluntary layoff program, while the Los Angeles Times said earlier this year it would lay off 10% of its newsroom staff.
The closure of Jezebel marks the end of the organization’s 16 years of publishing. It was launched in 2007 by Anna Holmes and Gawker Media – the online media company and blog whose flagship website Gawker.com closed in 2016 after it was financially crippled by a lawsuit from Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan.
In the memo to Jezebel staff, Spanfeller praised journalists’ coverage of reproductive rights following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Daily Beast reported.
Spanfeller added that he hasn’t “given up” on Jezebel, the Daily Beast said, despite G/O Media’s decision to close it.
“Media is absolutely resilient. This also applies to the practitioners,” Spanfeller wrote to the employees. “I will keep you updated if circumstances change.”
News of the site’s closure sparked widespread excitement on social media, with many former employees and readers offering eulogies and comments about the site’s legacy.
“I’m not exaggerating when I say [Jezebel] is the reason why I became a journalist. Reading it completely changed my perspective on so many things: on abortion, on sex, on how I navigated the world at large as a woman. I owe him a huge debt. Many of us do it,” wrote Rolling Stone reporter EJ Dickson on X.
Gita Jackson, a former employee of the G/O Media website Kotaku, wrote: “Thank you to the employees who were laid off today at G/O Media, especially the employees at Jezebel. This site helped me understand how to not only be a feminist but also develop a coherent ideology, and the opportunity to work with all the many wonderful people who worked there was a dream.”
Laura Bassett, Jezebel’s youngest editor-in-chief, who left the site earlier this fall, pleaded with the people on X to hire the Jezebel employees laid off on Thursday: “I’m obviously seething and have too much to say on this topic. But for now, I just want to say that my heart goes out to all of the Jez staff who were just fired, including the incredible abortion reporters at a time when the blow couldn’t be more relevant to national politics. Please hire them.”
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