11-10-2023, 07:25 AM
https://www.thedailybeast.com/go-media-s...it-company
“Unfortunately, our business model and the audiences we serve across our network did not align with Jezebel’s,” Spanfeller wrote in the memo. “And when that became clear, we undertook an expansive search for a new, perhaps better home that might ensure Jezebel a path forward. It became a personal mission of Lea Goldman, who worked tirelessly on the project, talking with over two dozen potential buyers. It is a testament to Jezebel’s heritage and bonafides that so many players engaged us. Still, despite every effort, we could not find Jez a new home.”
...Jezebel employees were informed of the shutdown during a meeting Wednesday morning, a staffer impacted by the shuttering told The Daily Beast, and they immediately lost access to their Slack and Google email accounts afterward.
“We are devastated though hardly surprised at G/O Media and Jim Spanfeller’s inability to run our website and their cruel decision to shutter it. Jezebel has been a pillar of fearless journalism and important cultural commentary since 2007 and made an indelible mark on the media landscape,” the Writers Guild of America-East, which represents G/O Media staffers, said in a statement, adding: “A well-run company would have moved away from an advertising model, but instead they are shuttering the brand entirely because of their strategic and commercial ineptitude. Jezebel was a good website.”
...G/O Media has been rollicked by turmoil across its various publications this year, which include outlets such as Gizmodo, Jezebel, The Root, and Kotaku. It announced over the summer its plans to publish stories generated by AI, which resulted in stories that included false information that angered staffers across its verticals. The company, however, has continued its embrace of automation, shedding staffers at Gizmodo en Español in favor of automated translations.
It has also seen an exodus of top editors, with editors-in-chief at all of the aforementioned publications leaving within the last year alone.
“Unfortunately, our business model and the audiences we serve across our network did not align with Jezebel’s,” Spanfeller wrote in the memo. “And when that became clear, we undertook an expansive search for a new, perhaps better home that might ensure Jezebel a path forward. It became a personal mission of Lea Goldman, who worked tirelessly on the project, talking with over two dozen potential buyers. It is a testament to Jezebel’s heritage and bonafides that so many players engaged us. Still, despite every effort, we could not find Jez a new home.”
...Jezebel employees were informed of the shutdown during a meeting Wednesday morning, a staffer impacted by the shuttering told The Daily Beast, and they immediately lost access to their Slack and Google email accounts afterward.
“We are devastated though hardly surprised at G/O Media and Jim Spanfeller’s inability to run our website and their cruel decision to shutter it. Jezebel has been a pillar of fearless journalism and important cultural commentary since 2007 and made an indelible mark on the media landscape,” the Writers Guild of America-East, which represents G/O Media staffers, said in a statement, adding: “A well-run company would have moved away from an advertising model, but instead they are shuttering the brand entirely because of their strategic and commercial ineptitude. Jezebel was a good website.”
...G/O Media has been rollicked by turmoil across its various publications this year, which include outlets such as Gizmodo, Jezebel, The Root, and Kotaku. It announced over the summer its plans to publish stories generated by AI, which resulted in stories that included false information that angered staffers across its verticals. The company, however, has continued its embrace of automation, shedding staffers at Gizmodo en Español in favor of automated translations.
It has also seen an exodus of top editors, with editors-in-chief at all of the aforementioned publications leaving within the last year alone.
