G/O Media, the parent company of popular digital outlets including Gizmodo, Jezebel, and The Onion, among others, is laying off 14 staffers amid the coronavirus pandemic. In an email to employees on Friday, CEO Jim Spanfeller announced that G/O brass made the “extremely painful” decision to cut staff amid the “deteriorating economic environment” caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“This is having a direct impact on our business. Direct advertising is slowing dramatically and as such forcing these difficult decisions to be made,” Spanfeller said. “Changes are happening swiftly across the industry – we are not the first, and we certainly won’t be last.”
Over the past month, numerous media companies across the industry have announced steep cutbacks or layoffs as advertising revenues have deteriorated. Bustle Digital Group laid off 25 staffers on Friday, while companies including BuzzFeed News, Vice, and Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., have all announced pay cuts and furloughs in the last week.
