‘The Indecency’: Fired Pitchfork Writers Shocked By Anna Wintour Laying Them Off Without Removing Her Sunglasses

(AP Photo/Vianney Le Caer)

Legendary Condé Nast editor Anna Wintour didn’t have to look Pitchfork employees in the eye when she fired them this week, thanks to her trademark sunglasses that remained firmly in place, according to a now-former staff writer.

The global mass media company announced this week that it was merging the music news and criticism site with GQ men’s magazine. As a result, “upwards of half of Pitchfork’s staff are believed to have been laid off,” Variety reported.

“One absolutely bizarro detail from this week is that Anna Wintour — seated indoors at a conference table — did not remove her sunglasses while she was telling us that we were about to get canned,” ex-staff writer Allison Hussey wrote on X. “The indecency we’ve seen from upper management this week is appalling.”

Wintour, who is Condé Nast’s chief content officer and global editorial director of Vogue, also sent a memo to employees explaining that the decision “was made after a careful evaluation of Pitchfork’s performance and what we believe is the best path forward for the brand so that our coverage of music can continue to thrive within the company,” Variety reported.

Those laid off included editor-in-chief Puja Patel and features editor Jill Mapes, who posted on X:

“I’ve referred to my job at pitchfork as being on a ferris wheel at closing time, just waiting for them to yank me down. after nearly 8 yrs, mass layoffs got me. glad we could spend that time trying to make it a less dude-ish place just for GQ to end up at the helm.”

The New York NewsGuild posted a statement on X saying, “Condé Nast management announced on Nov. 1 plans to lay off 5% of its workforce…In a December meeting with Guild bargaining members, Condé Nast representatives said there would be no layoffs at Pitchfork. We saw on Wednesday just how untrustworthy Condé Nast management is.”

The Washington Post described Pitchfork as “the most influential music journalism publication of the past 20 years.” Condé Nast acquired the publication in 2015, adding it to its catalog of editorial brands that include Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Wired.

Read the Variety article here.