G/O Media’s Jezebel to close after 16 years, entire team of 23 laid off

Feminist news and opinion website Jezebel is ceasing operations after 16 years after management failed to find a buyer for the website.

As a result of this restructuring, 23 editorial staff members will be laid off, including the Jezebel team.

G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller broke the news to staff in a memo which can be read here. An excerpt from the memo reads:

“As of this week we are making the very, very difficult decision to suspend publication of Jezebel. Few decisions over the course of my career have been as excruciating, and I want to make clear this is in NO WAY a reflection on the Jezebel editorial team.

“Over the longer term we will be adding new positions with updated or perhaps new goals in mind.

“Unfortunately, our business model and the audiences we serve across our network did not align with Jezebel’s. And when that became clear, we undertook an expansive search for a new, perhaps better home that might ensure Jezebel a path forward. It became a personal mission of Lea Goldman [G/O Media deputy editorial director], who worked tirelessly on the project, talking with over two dozen potential buyers. It is a testament to Jezebel’s heritage and bonafides that so many players engaged us. Still, despite every effort, we could not find Jez a new home.”

Lauren Tousignant, Jezebel’s interim EIC wrote on X/Twitter:

“Will have more to say soon, but for now, I am just so pissed and so sad, but mostly I’m so pissed.”

The Writers Guild of America, East expressed frustration:

“We are devastated though hardly surprised at G/O Media and Jim Spanfeller’s inability to run our website and their cruel decision to shutter it…. The closure of Jezebel also underscores fundamental flaws in the ad-supported media model where concerns about ‘brand safety’ limit monetizing content about the biggest, most important stories of the day — stories that create huge traffic because people read and share them.

“A well-run company would have moved away from an advertising model, but instead they are shuttering the brand entirely because of their strategic and commercial ineptitude.”

Jezebel was launched in 2007 by Gawker Media and in 2019, it became part of the G/O Media portfolio.

In addition, G/O Media editorial director Merrill Brown has also left after 11 months in office.