JANUARY 21, 2023 — 130 LAYOFFS
The company has announced plans to lay off 7% of its workforce across departments, resulting in the elimination of about 130 employees.
CEO Jim Bankoff …
Hello everyone,
We’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate roughly 7% of our staff roles across departments, due to the challenging economic environment impacting our business and industry.
Several different teams across Revenue, Editorial, Operations and Core Services are impacted by the layoffs.
We are experiencing and expect more of the same economic and financial pressures that others in the media and tech industries have encountered. These difficult circumstances prompted us to take other steps over the past few months to reduce our spending. We suspended most new hiring and significantly reduced discretionary spending. While we are not expecting further layoffs at this time, we will continue to assess our outlook, keep a tight control on expenses and consider implementing other cost savings measures as needed.
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. In spite of the dedication of the many talented people involved in these initiatives, we need to scale back.
It is important to note that the brands in our portfolio are as relevant as ever to their audiences and in the marketplace. We continue to do outstanding work across our editorial properties and business lines. Our company is fundamentally strong; these setbacks are driven primarily by the temporal macro-economic forces that are impacting nearly all businesses in our sector.
Having said that, I realize that we need to constantly evolve and improve if we want to continue to be the leading modern media company and strongest possible workplace. Especially during a downturn, operational discipline and strategic focus will be key to Vox Media’s success. Audience engagement and loyalty will be our primary focus. We will prioritize our brands’ core missions and value to their audiences and our business partners. We’ll continue to diversify revenue and media formats, focusing on areas of the business where we expect substantial, stable growth.
I am incredibly grateful to our colleagues who will be leaving Vox Media today. Your talent and contributions have undoubtedly made us a better company. While these decisions were caused by the challenging economic environment and our need to prioritize resources, it doesn’t make this news any easier.
Jim
MARCH 3, 2022 — 3% REDUCTION IN STAFF AFTER MERGER
Vox Media announced plans to lay off 3% of employees following the completion of its merger with Group Nine Media.
According to a company statement, "These changes are necessary because combining our two organizations naturally created a duplication in certain jobs, particularly at senior levels, as well as a need to re-prioritize a select few initiatives. The people impacted are in the revenue organization, core services, studios, and at the space website Seeker, which Vox Media acquired via its merger with Group Nine.”
JULY 17, 2020 — FURLOUGHS TURN INTO LAYOFFS FOR 72 EMPLOYEES.
Vox Media has decided to turn some furloughs into layoffs as they laid off approximately 6% of its staff, or about 72 employees were not asked to return.
DECEMBER 30, 2019 — Original post…
California’s one-party progressive legislators passed an unduly restrictive law on behalf of the unions fighting to control ride-sharing, construction, and hospitalities services which employed independent “1099” workers. Unfortunately, many individuals participating in the “gig economy” and who are self-employed were impacted by the new law which will take effect on January 1, 2020.
SB Nation, a sports blogging network owned by Vox Media, laid off 200 freelance bloggers rather than comply with the new law by making them into “W-2” employees with all of the benefits accorded to the permanent staff.
John Ness, the executive director of SB Nation, commented on his own blog post titled, “Thank You, California.”
Ness noted, “This is a bittersweet note of thanks to our California independent contractors. In 2019, SB Nation contractors who live in California or contribute to California’s team sites did some truly amazing work: They ran 25 different communities, with all of the sites’ managers pulling together their own unique recipe for smart coverage. Contractors ran social media through the nerve-racking ups and downs of gametime and moderated our sprawling communities. Together, over 200 people on California sites wrote thousands of blog posts in 2019 – pieces so diverse in their conception that it’s impossible to describe them en masse except to say, they were written for a community of fellow fans. This is how things have run for our California blogs since 2003 when Tyler Bleszinski launched Athletics Nation.
Now comes the bittersweet part: In 2020, we will move California’s team blogs from our established system with hundreds of contractors to a new one run by a team of new SB Nation employees. In the early weeks and months of 2020, we will end our contracts with most contractors at California brands. This shift is part of a business and staffing strategy that we have been exploring over the past two years, but one that is also necessary for light of California’s new independent contractor law, which goes into effect on January 1, 2020. That new law makes it impossible for us to continue with our current California team site structure because it restricts contractors from producing more than 35 written content “submissions” per year. To comply with this new law, we will not be replacing California contractors with contractors from other states. Rather, we’re encouraging any contractors interested in one of our newly-created full-time or part-time employee positions to apply (you can find them here). We know many of our California contractors already have other full-time jobs and may not have the bandwidth to apply, but we hope to see many of them join us as employees.”
Without a doubt, this is another legislative abuse of power that puts legislators pandering to special interests who provide campaign funding and voter support, above their constituents and residents of the state.
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?
