WGAE members “devastated” by Jezebel’s closure due to layoffs at parent company G/O Media

Members of the Writers Guild of America East react to today’s news of the closure of G/O Media’s Jezebel after a failed attempt to sell the site. The closure came after parent company G/O Media laid off 23 employees, including Jezebel’s team.

The company attributed the cuts to part of a restructuring to deal with economic headwinds and a difficult digital advertising environment. The New York-based company also announced the departure of G/O Media editor-in-chief Merrill Brown.

“We are devastated but hardly surprised by G/O Media and Jim Spanfeller’s inability to manage our website and their cruel decision to shut it down,” the WGAE statement said. “A pillar of fearless journalism and important cultural commentary since 2007, Jezebel has left an indelible mark on the media landscape.

“Jezebel’s closure also highlights fundamental flaws in the ad-supported media model, where brand safety concerns limit the monetization of content around the biggest and most important stories of the day — stories that drive huge traffic because people read and share them.” , the statement continued. “A well-run company would have abandoned an advertising model and instead shut down the brand entirely due to its strategic and commercial incompetence. Jezebel was a good site.”

G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller announced the closing and layoffs in a letter to employees Thursday.

“As of this week, we are making the very, very difficult decision to suspend the release of Jezebel,” Spanfeller wrote. “Few decisions throughout my career have been so upsetting, and I want to make it clear that this is in NO way a reflection of Jezebel’s editorial staff.

“Unfortunately, our business model and the audience we serve through our network did not align with Jezebel’s,” Spanfeller added. “And when that became clear, we started looking for a new, maybe better home that would allow Jezebel to move forward. For Lea Goldman, it became a personal mission [G/O Media deputy editorial director], who worked tirelessly on the project and spoke to over twenty potential buyers. It’s a testament to Jezebel’s legacy and loyalty that so many players have reached out to us. But despite our best efforts, we couldn’t find a new home for Jez.”

Launched in 2007 by Gawker Media with founder and editor Anna Holmes, Jezebel featured news and cultural commentary with a focus on women. After Gawker Media collapsed, the site was purchased by Univision Communications and later acquired by G/O Media.

In July, the WGAE called for an “immediate end” to AI-generated articles on G/O Media sites, which also include AV Club, Deadspin, Gizmodo and others.

The union called the journalism written by bots “an oxymoron” and pointed out that “G/O Media has published AI-generated articles on various union properties, embarrassing employees who work hard under untenable conditions to create websites with relevant, accurate and engaging journalism.”

WGAE members at The Onion also released a statement blaming G/O Media management for today’s layoffs.

“Our hostile and incompetent management has made no effort to work with the union to find a less brutal alternative agreement or to impose pay cuts themselves,” the authors said in the statement.

“ohOur affected colleagues are talented artists, satirists and journalists. This callous firing has everything to do with G/O Media’s ineffective management and nothing to do with the talent of our colleagues who should still be here with us.

“SSince G/O Media’s founding in 2019, The Onion Inc. “Union shrank 61%, closed two sites, sold one and experienced several layoffs,” the statement continued. “Despite these enormous obstacles, G/O Media’s editorial team has continued to produce award-winning journalism and invest in these publications with a commitment that is completely at odds with our apathetic and hostile ownership.”