Business Insider will lay off about 8 percent of its remaining staff, its CEO told staffers on Thursday, marking the company’s second round of cuts in less than a year.
“We closed out last year with a plan in place, a clear target audience, and a vision,” CEO Barbara Peng wrote to staffers in a memo, which was obtained by The Daily Beast.
“This year is about making it happen and focusing our company and efforts towards this future. We have already begun to refocus teams and invest in areas that drive outsize value for our core audience. Unfortunately, this also means we need to scale back in some areas of our organization.”
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Those leaving the company will receive at least 13 weeks of severance pay and medical coverage through May, Peng wrote. The company is also holding an all-hands on Thursday morning to discuss the layoffs.
“We’re committed to building an enduring and sustainable Business Insider for the coming years and beyond,” Peng wrote. “We’ll continue to work to serve our audience, create great experiences for them, and deliver stories that improve their lives and the world.”
Business Insider had no additional comment on the cuts.
The layoffs come less than a month after a company-wide moratorium on layoffs expired following an agreement between Business Insider and its union last summer. The union told its members on Thursday it was looking into whether the company followed the proper procedure for enacting the layoffs, as their contract stipulates at least 24 days' notice.
“It is insulting that management is choosing not to value our coworkers who we know do such brilliant, important work,” union chair Emma LeGault wrote to guild members on Thursday.
The cuts are Business Insider’s second round of layoffs in nine months. Following a layoff announcement last April, Business Insider’s union rallied its staffers to push back on prolonged contract negotiations and eventually partake in the longest open-ended strike for a digital media outlet.
Thursday’s layoffs follow a week of hundreds of media job cuts across the country, including losses at the Los Angeles Times, TIME magazine, Pitchfork, NBC News, and National Geographic. Those follow layoffs and buyouts last year at other outlets, including The Washington Post, The Messenger, and The New Yorker.
“This is coming on the heels of several rounds of layoffs across our industry,” LeGault wrote. “Like our fellow media union members at the LA Times, Conde Nast, and more, we are standing together. No matter what management does—now or ever—we have incredible power when we’re united.”
