(New York) The information group Vice Media, bankrupt since May, will lay off dozens more people, a union announced, and the feminist site Jezebel will close, according to its management, a new illustration of the difficulties of young media in the United States.
Vice Media, whose headquarters is in Brooklyn, the fashionable New York borough, will part ways with several dozen people, according to an employee familiar with the company’s decisions and the Vice Union union, which denounced on X a management attitude that “goes way too far.”
According to the specialized online newspaper Deadline, the two directors of Vice, Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala, announced it to employees on Thursday.
According to the union, “a large number of people lost their jobs today” and the announcement was made during a “meeting” that was actually “streamed live via video without the opportunity to ask questions.”
Between 50 to 100 departures are planned, according to the employee interviewed by AFP and who requested anonymity.
“Managers barely recognized the massive layoffs,” denounced the union and, in fact, no communication was made by management.
Vice Media announced in June that it was being taken over by creditors for $350 million, a month after filing for bankruptcy, a step that should allow it to continue operating.
But according to an employee and Deadline, the Vice reports that have been running on Showtime TV channels for years have stopped, as has the flagship Vice show News Tonight leading to 100 layoffs in the spring.
Vice Media was valued in 2017 at $5.7 billion.
The group then represented a new generation of online media, with original coverage and an approach, which experts imagined would revolutionize the sector.
But most sites have never made the profits expected by investors in a difficult advertising market.
The first American feminist information site, Jezebel, announced in a memorandum consulted by AFP the “suspension of operations” and the “departure of 23 members of the editorial staff”.
Citing “economic headwinds,” G/O Media Group CEO Jim Spanfeller lamented that the network’s model and customers had not “aligned with Jezebel’s.”
Jezebel, launched in 2007, gained its legitimacy thanks to thoughtful and well-written articles on women’s rights and conditions.
In April, BuzzFeed also closed its BuzzFeed News site with 180 layoffs.
