On Wednesday, Vox Media announced that they would be laying off roughly 50 employees, with 12 other employees offered “role changes.”
As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, the news of the cuts came from a memo from CEO Jim Bankoff to the staff; he said the Racked, Curbed, SB Nation, and Video Services teams would be “bearing the biggest impact.”
Bankoff wrote, “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,” adding that the move made Wednesday “one of the toughest days we’ve had as a company … 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 on the morale of those who remain. We commit to treating all those affected with professionalism, compassion and dignity.”
Bankoff stated that ideas revolving around social video, while “growing successfully and surpassing audience growth goals, won’t be viable audience or revenue growth drivers for us relative to other investments we are making,” adding that “industry changes over the past few months and our long-term budgeting process” had affected the material. Last week Bankoff acknowledged Vox would eschew producing Facebook-native content because of “its unreliable monetization and promotion.”
Bankoff also stated, “We are in a strong place creatively, journalistically, and financially. 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.”
Although some speculated that Racked would be shut down, a company spokesperson countered, “The Racked brand is not folding. We are cutting Racked’s native social video and shopping programs, but will continue to support the rest of their incredible journalism and talented team of reporters.”
Vox is backed by Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal; Vox got a $200 million investment from them in 2015. As Bloomberg reports, “Facebook Inc.’s recent algorithm changes are forcing publishers to shift strategies.”
