Layoffs Hit Bustle as Women’s Site Eliminates News and Books Teams
More than a dozen editorial employees were let go today from Bustle, the online women’s site owned by Bustle Digital Group.
The jobs that were eliminated appeared to have been associated primarily with books, lifestyle and entertainment coverage — those who were laid off included lifestyle editor Tanya Ghahremani, celebrity and entertainment news editor Jamie Primeau, senior books editor Cristina Arreola and movies editor Sage Young, among many others.
Today’s culling is part of a broader restructuring at Bustle that entails the complete elimination of its books and news teams and a winnowing down of its lifestyle and entertainment teams, according to a freelance contributor who spoke to Mediaite.
The freelancer attributed the recent changes to Bustle’s new editor Emma Rosenblum, the former Elle executive editor who took over the website after Kate Ward resigned from her position as editor in chief in April.
Since coming on, Rosenblum has gotten rid of editors and instituted new copy guidelines including cautioning writers against overusing such phrases as “sweet,” “adorable,” “heartwarming,” “thriving” and “will make your heart melt,” according to an internal memo obtained by Mediaite. “We are grown-ups, our readers are grown-ups, and the people we’re writing about are grown-ups, so we don’t need to be cutesy or tell them how to feel,” the memo said.
“The copy guidelines are a very recent change — since Emma came on board — and they’ve been implemented seemingly out of nowhere,” a staffer who was laid off today told Mediaite. “Many of us have felt that it’s taken away our voice and what made the site unique — and the pressure on editors has trickled down to writers pretty quickly, making morale low.”
Bustle did not immediately respond to an email request asking for comment regarding the layoffs, which have come during a particularly difficult year for media. Over just two weeks at the beginning of 2019, for instance, more than 2,000 people lost their jobs in the media industry.
A spokesperson for Bustle Digital Group told Variety that “Bustle’s new editorial leadership will soon be announcing several marquee hires as we prepare for a major site relaunch in early 2020.”
Bustle Digital Group owns a suite of sites that includes Elite Daily, Inverse, Nylon, Romper, The Outline, The Zoe Report and Mic, which BDG bought last year just after all of its employees were laid off. The company has been on a buying spree of late, having acquired Nylon, The Outline and Inverse this year. (Along with Bustle, Rosenblum oversees Elite Daily, Romper and The Zoe Report.)
Last year, Bryan Goldberg, the founder and chief executive officer of Bustle Digital Group, also bought Gawker at a bankruptcy auction for $1.35 million. He had planned to relaunch the site, which went bankrupt in 2016 as the result of an invasion of privacy lawsuit brought by Hulk Hogan and funded by the billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel. But after some false starts, Goldberg axed the project in July and laid off the entire staff that he had built up after buying the site.
Goldberg — the founder of Bleacher Report — launched Bustle in 2013, and over the past six years the site has grown into a blogging juggernaut. But the layoffs today along with more recent layoffs at the company suggest that the site is transforming into something quite different than what it once was.
“It’s very glum over there now,” said the freelancer.
