Hearst Magazines — home to a wide array of publications like Esquire, Cosmopolitan and Men’s Health — is the latest media company to lay off dozens of employees. Debi Chirichella, Hearst’s president, said in a memo to staff on Thursday the company would be cutting jobs as it looks to “reimagine” its approach.
The publisher will be letting go of more than 60 employees, according to Caley Fretz, the editor-in-chief of Escape Magazine. It is unclear which departments will be most affected by the layoffs.
“After a thorough review of our business, we’ve decided to reallocate resources to better support our goals and continue our focus on digital innovation while strengthening our best-in-class print products,” Chirichella’s memo said. “We will scale back in areas that do not support our core strategy and will eliminate certain positions as we reimagine our team structures to drive long-term growth.”
Sam Wheeler, the director of the Writers Guild of America East, said the “consistently anti-union” company is just the latest to enact “needless, irresponsible and cruel” layoffs.
“Unsurprisingly, the small army of senior executives with make-work jobs and self-important titles, who add little to nothing to build Hearst’s brands, apparently made it through today relatively unscathed,” he said in a Thursday statement.
Wheeler continued: “Readers go to Hearst because of the talent and craft of its editorial employees. These workers make Hearst what it is. Until Hearst and the rest of the media industry recognize that the workers are the most valuable part of their companies and brands, they will continue their race to the bottom with no one to blame but themselves.”
Hearst joins a growing list of high-profile media outlets to cut jobs recently. Dotdash Meredith cut 53 employees last week and KFI 640 AM in Los Angeles had its newsroom nearly gutted due to layoffs at iHeartRadio. And earlier this week, The Hollywood Reporter replaced co-editor-in-chief Nekesa Mumbi Moody on Tuesday with Shirley Halperin after THR let go of a number of employees over the summer.
Thursday’s job cuts come a month after Hearst struck a new content licensing partnership with OpenAI, allowing the tech company to integrate the media company’s newspaper and magazine content into its artificial intelligence products.
Chirichella, in her memo, said the cuts “will enable us to take care of our business for the long term. We’ll prioritize areas where we can deliver the highest impact and drive growth and continue to focus on producing the highest-quality storytelling, advertising solutions and digital experiences.”
Hearst did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.
Source link
