Vox Media lays off 50 employees, largely from native social media video teams
Vox Media has cut around 5% of its global workforce, many of whom work for the publisher’s social video sector.
Vox Media lays off
Racked, Curbed, SB Nation and the Video Services teams will be “bearing the biggest impact” according to a company email from Jim Bankoff, chief executive of Vox Media. 50 people will be let go, around 12 others being offered role changes. There will be substantially fewer changes at the Vox brand.
Bankoff announced: “As a result of our decision to wind down certain initiatives, we’ll be saying goodbye to some of our talented colleagues who have made valuable contributions to our success.
“Our leadership team and I took this decision very seriously. We know it has a big impact on the lives of our co-workers who will be leaving, as well as the moral of those who remain.”
He blamed “industry changes” and Vox Media’s “long term budgeting process” for the teams no longer being viable audience or revenue drivers.
Bankoff noted that the team has doubled to nearly 1,000 staffers in the last two years, underlining the company’s risk taking efforts.
“We are in a strong place creatively, journalistically, and financially,” adding. “However, staying ahead of the pack in this business requires not only relentless execution, but also making tough decisions like this, doing what we must when necessary to maximize opportunity in places with the clearest positive outcomes.”
The brands may have taken a knock from Facebook’s algorithm changes that deprioritised publishers in January. That change would have reduced the reach and viewership of select native social video.
The full email sent by Vox Media chief executive Jim Bankoff was shared by Buzzfeed News reporter Julia Reinstein.
Here’s the full email Vox CEO Jim Bankoff sent staff this morning announcing layoffs pic.twitter.com/VLRbEePLIb
— julia reinstein (@juliareinstein) February 21, 2018