A new round of layoffs at Vox Media on Thursday left Thrillist essentially shuttered, according to the company’s union. Many staffers at fellow Vox Media site Eater were also impacted, while PopSugar is facing a restructuring.
Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff confirmed the downsizing in a memo to staff, obtained by TheWrap: “Today, we’re implementing role eliminations and organizational changes across our lifestyle brands (Thrillist, PS and Eater), Product, and the Media Production & Technology organization. All affected employees have been notified and are receiving transition support.”
“Going forward, Thrillist will be operated by Eater, on a similar model to Punch, leveraging shared leadership and resources,” his message continued. “PS will concentrate on its extensive footprint across social and video platforms with an even stronger emphasis on shopping. Eater is reorganizing its cities coverage into a regional model in order to most efficiently serve its audience’s needs.”
Neither Vox Media nor the Vox Media Union would confirm the exact number of employees who had been let go, but the latter said it was “many,” with Thrillist left decimated, in particular.
“Today, we were blindsided by news from Vox Media management that many of our colleagues at Thrillist and Eater would lose their jobs. We are devastated to lose writers and editors who produce invaluable work each and every day, and disgusted by Vox Media’s short-sighted decision making,” the union and the Writers Guild of America East said in a joint statement. “As always, it is the workers who bear the brunt of management’s poor choices, and this close to holidays, their callousness is especially galling.”
“We are incredibly disappointed by management’s decision to decimate Thrillist, a vertical that it has invested almost nothing in since acquiring it from Group Nine,” they continued. “As we have made clear to management with our demand for One Union, One Contract, the WGAE-Vox Media Union views our colleagues at Thrillist as members of our union, and we will make sure that they are made whole in light of management’s decision to essentially shutter this beloved publication.”
“Many of those impacted by today’s layoffs work on Eater’s Cities team, a group of powerhouse journalists who produce some of the most impactful local journalism in the country,” the statement added. “Their work has always differentiated Eater and built it into the country’s most prominent food website, and management’s treatment of these workers is both irresponsible and reflects a complete lack of understanding of the journalism that is needed in this moment. We need more boots on the ground doing essential work, not fewer.”
The news came after Vox Media went through multiple rounds of layoffs last year, affecting many of its brands. In addition to Thrillist and Eater, the company also owns New York magazine, The Dodo, Grub Street, Intelligencer, Polygon, SB Nation, The Cut, The Strategist, Seeker, The Verge, Vox and Vulture.
“As always, the Guild will continue to demand that members are treated fairly in the aftermath of layoffs. As we approach the upcoming negotiations for our third collective bargaining agreement, we want to make abundantly clear to management that the status quo of constant, cyclical layoffs will not continue,” the joint statement concluded. “We will fight like hell to ensure that our industry has a future, no matter how many times those in charge attempt to run it into the ground.”
