In a memo to employees sent on Friday morning, chief executive Jim Bankoff announced that Vox Media, which also publishes New York magazine and news websites like Vox and The Verge, would be cutting 7 percent of its workforce.
According to Bankoff, the layoffs had an impact on multiple teams, including editorial, with approximately 130 people losing their jobs. After receiving notification via email, those who lost their jobs were scheduled for a meeting with a human resources officer to talk about severance packages.
“Due to the challenging economic environment impacting our business and industry,” Bankoff told employees.
In his memo, Bankoff stated, “We are experiencing and expect more of the same economic and financial pressures that others in the media and tech industries have encountered.”
The announcement made the union representing Vox Media employees “furious.”
“We’re furious at the way the company has approached these layoffs, and are currently discussing how to best serve those who just lost their jobs,” the union said in a tweet.
In recent months, the media and technology industries have been hit hard as advertisers cut back on spending amid broader economic uncertainty. As a result, there have been many layoffs.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, announced layoffs on Friday alongside Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft, three major players in the tech industry. Alphabet stated that it had decided to reduce its workforce by 6%, or approximately 12,000 jobs.
There have been a lot of layoffs in the news industry. Gannett, CNN, NBC News, MSNBC, and others have all reduced their workforces. A staff reduction is also anticipated to be announced soon by The Washington Post. Additionally, firms that haven’t laid off employees have aggressively cut costs.
Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN, are two entertainment giants that have also reduced their workforces.
Vox Media had to concentrate on its core business, according to Bankoff.
“Unfortunately, in this economic climate, we’re not able to sustain projects and areas of the business that have not performed as anticipated, are less core to where we see the biggest opportunities in the coming years, or where we don’t have enough rationale to support ongoing investment in what could be a prolonged downturn,” he wrote to staff.
“In spite of the dedication of the many talented people involved in these initiatives,” Bankoff added, “we need to scale back.”
