Pitchfork Hit With Layoffs, Restructuring Under GQ – Billboard

Condé Nast introduced on Wednesday (Jan. 17) that it’s shedding workers on the music publication Pitchfork and that the web site will likely be absorbed by one other Condé title, the boys’s journal GQ.   

Anna Wintour, Condé Nast’s chief content material officer, stated in an electronic mail to workers that “we’re evolving our Pitchfork group construction by bringing the group into the GQ group. This resolution was made after a cautious analysis of Pitchfork‘s efficiency and what we imagine is the very best path ahead for the model in order that our protection of music can proceed to thrive with the corporate.” 

Based on the memo, Puja Patel will not be editor in chief after the adjustments; she’s been within the position since 2018.

“With these organizational adjustments, a few of our Pitchfork colleagues will likely be leaving the corporate at the moment,” Wintour added. “I wish to thank Puja for her management of the title over the past 5 years.” 

Wintour’s electronic mail to workers — first reported by Semafor — didn’t say what number of staff have been terminated. When requested in regards to the extent of the layoffs, a Condé Nast consultant pointed Billboard again to Wintour’s memo. 

“After practically 8 [years], mass layoffs acquired me,” longtime editor Jill Mapes tweeted. “Glad we may spend that point attempting to make it a much less dude-ish place only for GQ to finish up on the helm.”

“It’s official: I used to be laid off from Pitchfork at the moment, together with what seems to be half the workers,” Matthew Ismael Ruiz wrote. “Whereas on parental depart.”

Just like the tech and music industries, media has been ravaged by layoffs over the previous 15 months. Axios reported final June that there have been greater than 17,000 cuts throughout media within the first 5 months of 2023, “the best year-to-date [total] on document.” 

Roger Lynch, the CEO of Condé Nast, advised workers in November that the corporate deliberate to chop 270 staff, or round 5% of workers. “We’re prioritizing value reductions via actual property/workplace house financial savings (for instance, we’re already within the means of bringing our groups within the UK collectively in a single house), closing open roles and re-phasing sure long-term tasks throughout the enterprise,” he wrote. 

“Nevertheless, these efforts alone received’t be sufficient to make sure we are able to proceed to make the investments wanted to develop our enterprise profitably,” Lynch added. “We’ve additionally needed to make the troublesome resolution to implement reductions amongst our devoted groups.”

Pitchfork was based in 1996 and grew to change into one of many main voice in indie music protection. Condé Nast acquired it in 2015.