Teen Vogue offices at Conde Nast.

Teguan Harris

Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch announced plans to lay off 300 staff members on 1st November 2023. What does this mean for the media industry?

Condé Nast Layoffs

The layoffs have come as a blow to several Condé Nast magazines, including Vanity Fair, Pitchfork, Sports Illustrated, GQ, Vogue, Architectural Digest, Bon Appetit, and The New Yorker.

In the announcement, Lynch stated: “These reductions will take place over the next few months and total approximately 5 per cent of all staff roles. There is no easy way to share this news.

“Our focus will be on making this transition as easy as possible for our dedicated colleagues with enhanced severance packages and career service offerings.”

In a note cited to employees, obtained by The Hill, Lynch said that the job reductions were necessary due to recent digital advertising pressures, a decline in social media traffic and other factors.

According to The Times, Lynch wrote: “While we can’t control platform algorithms or how [artificial intelligence] may change search traffic, we believe our long-term success will be determined by growing the many areas that we can control, including subscriptions and e-commerce, where we directly own the relationship with our audience.”

Lynch stated in a subsequent interview with The Times that the company has been closely watching engagement with video content during preparation for the new financial year.

“The longer-form videos on YouTube are actually in decline year over year,” he said. “That is an audience shift, but it was also YouTube chasing what they were seeing happening on TikTok.”

Since the initial announcement, Condé Nast has revised the plans and planned to cut 94 unionised staff members, comprising 20 per cent of the union.

Media Wipeout

The Condé Nast Union took to the streets in a staff walkout to protest the layoffs. During the strike, the Los Angeles Times laid off more than 20 per cent of their newsroom.

Business Insider announced that it plans to axe 8 per cent of its staff. Startup media organisation The Messenger surrendered after less than a year, costing 300 jobs.

Layoffs hit The New Yorker to the surprise of many, given its history of sitting beyond “gauche” business concerns.

“Pitchfork has banned former staff members from freelancing for the site.”

Condé Nast executive Anna Wintour announced that Pitchfork will fold into GQ, eradicating many jobs at the publication.”Today we are evolving our Pitchfork team structure by bringing the team into the GQ organisation,” an email from Wintour states.

The email also announced that they would be letting go of several staff members, but failed to specify how many.

Senior staff writer Marc Hogan started writing for Pitchfork in 2004. He was one of the staff members laid off.

“I know music journalism isn’t exactly brain surgery, but I have been privileged to do a bunch of work I’m really proud of with amazing colleagues,” he said. “Like too many of them, I was laid off today.”

Despite assurances from management that layoffs would not impact Pitchfork staff, employees were ultimately let go. Staff writer Evan Minsker also revealed on X that Pitchfork has banned former staff members from freelancing for the site.

“I’ve heard this from at least four people who were told pretty directly from someone at Pitchfork,” he said. “It feels unnecessary and vindictive. We all deserve better.”

Mass layoffs have also wiped out Sports Illustrated. Its publisher, The Arena Group, missed a licensing rights payment to its brand owner. The future of the publication remains uncertain.

Condé Nast Union Strikes

More than 400 people took to the streets to protest the Condé Nast layoffs, disrupting work for a full 24 hours after negotiations turned sour.

A video from X showed strikers chanting: “Bosses wear Prada, workers get nada.”

The Condé Nast Union intentionally protested on the day of the Oscar nominations and disrupted actress Anne Hathaway’s photo shoot with Vanity Fair, which she walked out of in solidarity.

Since the announcements, The NewsGuild of New York has filed two unfair labour practice charges on behalf of the union with the National Labour Relations Board. They described the layoffs as an “unlawful handling of layoff negotiations and bad-faith bargaining.”

Vice Chair of the Condé Nast Entertainment unit of the Condé Nast Union, Ben Dewey, made a statement regarding the strike: “The last nearly three months of fighting for our co-workers on the company’s layoff list have led us to today.

“Our 24-hour walkout is about standing firmly behind our colleagues and showing Condé Nast management in the clearest possible way that we will not tolerate their disrespect at the bargaining table over these layoffs. It is time to start bargaining in good faith with us.”

President of The NewsGuild of New York, Susan DeCarava, also stated: “Media workers at Condé Nast are key to the company’s success and reputation for excellence. They deserve for their work to be respected on the job and at the bargaining table.

“Guild members in Condé Nast Union walked off the job today to remind management of their worth and urge company reps to bargain in good faith. We demand nothing less.”

What’s Next For The Industry?

With the ever-growing number of layoffs and publication shutdowns, the future of journalism is in question.

Following the layoffs, many journalists turned to freelance journalism on LinkedIn and X. Editors and correspondents posted calls for pitches for laid-off journalists on social media. Freelance writer Kaitlyn Arford posted resources for laid-off journalists on LinkedIn.

Media workers have also circulated mutual aid for laid-off journalists, which includes emergency grants, the LA Journalists Mutal Aid Network and the community aid network.

However, freelance journalism is nowhere near as financially stable as working full-time in a newsroom. Writers turning to freelance journalism also lose out on their benefits and luxuries, including medical care, which they now have to pay for out of pocket.

Layoffs have left many journalists feeling abandoned and overlooked.

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Featured image courtesy of ishawalia via Flickr. No changes were made to the image. Image licence found here.

Writer and journalist. University graduate in English Literature. Book reader, word lover and Notion enthusiast.

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