Vox Media lays off 50 staffers citing ‘industry changes’

Vox Media is laying off about 50 employees, the D.C. and New York–based company’s CEO Jim Bankoff announced to employees on Wednesday.

According to a memo obtained by Variety, the company is also offering role changes to a dozen other employees. It represents a 5 percent reduction in workforce.

“Our leadership team and I took this decision very seriously. We know it has a big impact on the lives of our co-workers who will be leaving, as well as on the morale of those who remain,” Bankoff wrote.

Bankoff stated that the company employs nearly 1,000 total. Editorial staff at the company recently voted to unionize, and the union said in a tweet that it is negotiating over the layoffs.

Today, Vox Media announced that it will lay off dozens of members of the Vox Media Union, among other coworkers of ours. We stand in solidarity with our colleagues and are committed to fighting for them.

— Vox Media Union (@vox_union) February 21, 2018

As for the reason behind the layoffs, Bankoff said the company is “winding down” initiatives including native social video.

“The groups bearing the biggest impact are the Racked, Curbed, SB Nation, and the Video Services teams, although there are also some smaller changes elsewhere in the company,” the memo states. The first three in that list refer to news verticals published by the company, which also owns brands such as Eater and Recode, as well as Vox.

He maintained that social video was growing, but said it is no longer considered a good long-term bet “due to industry changes over the past few months.” One such shift could be from Facebook, which recently announced an overhaul of its news feed algorithm that favors friends and family over brands.