Wired’s union blasts Conde Nast for meager severance

Wired’s editorial union has fired off a letter to Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch blasting the company for its coronavirus severance packages after a majority of editorial staffers last month indicated that they want the News Guild of New York to be their bargaining agent, reports Keith Kelly of the New York Post.

Kelly reports, “‘We were deeply disappointed to learn that many of our laid off colleagues were offered meager or nonexistent severance packages, even though in your letter to the company on Wednesday (5/13) you stated that ‘supporting people in their transition was of utmost importance,’’ said the letter, which drew support from three other unionized Condé brands: The New Yorker, Ars Technica and Pitchfork.

“The union also blasted the company for its treatment of freelancers:

“‘Our freelancer and subcontractor colleagues, some of whom worked for WIRED full time for years in a shameful two-tier system, were left with no severance pay or health coverage whatsoever in the middle of a pandemic that has caused the worst economic downturn in generations.’

“After a first round of cuts unveiled in late April that resulted in pay reductions, the magazine publisher followed up last week by axing nearly 100 employees in the US, where about half of its 6,000 worldwide employees work.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.