- Bustle Digital Group, the digital-media conglomerate that has purchased Mic, Inverse, Gawker, and Nylon in the past year, has undergone stealth staff cuts, according to 24 former and current employees who spoke with Business Insider.
- In the past month, at least 17 employees have been let go. Someone still at the company said, "Everyone is wondering if they're going to be next."
- Nylon, which BDG purchased in June, has shrunk to one-fourth of its pre-acquisition size.
- Employees at numerous publications have said Emma Rosenblum, BDG's new editor in chief for lifestyle publications, wants to move publications away from identity-centered coverage, stoking concerns over the company's core values.
- Adding fuel to the fire, Rosenblum has been criticized for bringing a nearly all-white leadership team over from Hearst while axing the most senior person of color at the company.
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Bustle Digital Group, the parent company of the female-focused flagship news site Bustle, has been on an acquisition spree for the past two years, expanding its portfolio to eight editorial brands, including The Outline, Mic, Inverse, Gawker, and Nylon, with a new tech publication in the offing.
In a media environment more accustomed to mass layoffs and shuttered publications, BDG's swelling network presents a rare rosy image. CEO Bryan Goldberg told Bloomberg in June the company was projecting "a small profit" for the year.
But it's not all good news. Business Insider has learned that BDG has quietly been cutting staff, letting go of at least 5% of its workforce in the past month. Inside the company, the firings — along with concerns over diversity and murky editorial priorities — have fostered a "toxic" work environment, according to 24 current and former BDG employees who spoke with Business Insider.
At least 17 jobs have been cut in the past month
Despite the acquisitions, and BDG's self-proclaimed role as "the fastest-growing publisher in modern media," at least 17 employees have been axed at numerous BDG publications in the past month. The company has also slashed freelance budgets across its sites.
"Everyone is wondering if they're going to be next," one current employee said. "Everyone is just afraid all the time; we don't know when it will stop."
The cuts have come in phases, which multiple sources have speculated was to avoid negative press.
Many were told that their positions were being eliminated. At least one terminated employee was told the cuts targeted "underperformers" but said they received no advance warning or complaints in performance reviews.
Asked for comment, Goldberg accused Business Insider of "FUD efforts," an apparent reference to the disinformation tactic of deliberately spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
In an email to Business Insider, Goldberg wrote:
I am aware that you have been indiscriminately spamming my employees across every department of my company and spreading inaccurate rumors about layoffs and causing distress for dozens of people. A large number of our employees have shared with us your copy/paste inquiries and are concerned about their jobs on account of your false and damaging FUD efforts. As you are aware, we consider your methods to be journalistically sub-standard and potentially damaging, and we have logged this complaint with Nicholas [Carlson, Insider's global editor in chief], and will respond/escalate in due course. Separately, we await your list of questions.
Goldberg and BDG also denied the cuts were "layoffs" and said the company's head count has grown in the past month to 315 — as large as it has ever been.
A BDG spokesperson said, "It is an exciting time for BDG as we bring on new leaders to build and evolve our brands. We're hiring across the board and will continue to invest in new talent."
The BDG jobs page lists one full-time editorial position open across all eight properties.
Only a quarter of Nylon's staff remains after it was acquired by BDG
The hardest-hit property in Goldberg's growing empire of sites has been Nylon, the 20-year-old fashion, culture, and beauty magazine BDG purchased in June. Despite Goldberg's announcement at the time of ambitious plans centered around the continued leadership of Nylon's then-Editor in Chief Gabrielle Korn and a relaunch of the print version of the magazine, the majority of Nylon's staff has disappeared.
At least four staffers were laid off as part of the acquisition. At least three more were cut without warning three months later. Korn announced her departure a month after the purchase. Nylon had 24 staffers before BDG's acquisition; today it has seven.
Numerous sources said BDG hasn't laid out an editorial plan for Nylon and that the remaining staff were "treading water."
In an October meeting attended by the staff of BDG's lifestyle publications, Alyssa Klein, Nylon's recently installed editorial director, told employees that the site still lacked a detailed strategy, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by Business Insider.
But she did describe Nylon's new imaginary target reader: "Chloe."
"Chloe is 26, she lives in LA — this is big — Chloe is rebellious, risk-taking, and rule breaking," Klein said. "Chloe loves 'Euphoria.'" Klein continued, "She's effortlessly cool and is known for setting trends rather than following them." Chloe is also up to date on "YouTuber drama" and "this season's runway shows in Paris."
Some are concerned that BDG is becoming less diverse
BDG has built its reputation on Goldberg's purported mastery of what millennial and Generation Z readers want, and it claims to incorporate those generational values into its hiring choices. The company's job listings say BDG's readers are looking "to hear from a set of diverse voices around the issues and interests engaging the next generation."
But internally, staffers said, diversity is on the decline.
When Korn departed, Nylon's staff was devastated. As a gay woman who emphasized coverage of marginalized people, insiders said, she was central to Nylon's identity.
Meeting Emma Rosenblum, who as BDG's editor in chief for lifestyle oversees Nylon, didn't allay their concerns.
Sources said that in small group meetings, Rosenblum was critical of Korn and her perspective, which Nylon employees saw as essentially queer and diverse. The upshot, sources said, was that Rosenblum saw Nylon's historically queer sensibility as more of a special topic than a central component of its voice and planned to remake it as a general-interest women's fashion site.
Nylon staffers weren't alone in their concern over diversity at BDG. Other BDG employees described meetings with Rosenblum upon her arrival where she critiqued the company's editorial culture and output, singling out identity-based perspective pieces for criticism.
On September 26, Rosenblum announced that she was bringing in Christina Amoroso and Katherine Stoeffel — two white women from Hearst — as Bustle's executive editor and BDG's features editor, respectively. She also promoted another white woman, Charlotte Owen, to be Bustle's editorial director. Just seven weeks earlier, she had announced the hiring of another white woman, Klein, as the editorial director of Nylon.
The former Bustle staffer Amanda Richards summed up a lot of BDG employee's concerns on Twitter. "I will always have love and loyalty for the Bustle / BDG team that I worked with at the beginning of my time there, but right now the new EIC appears to be hiring exclusively white women for top level editorial and wow it's pretty glaring."
Numerous employees took note of the fact that former Bustle executive editor Jada Gomez, one of the highest-ranking women of color in the company, had been let go days before Rosenblum's staffing announcement.
In response to questions about the above events and criticisms, a BDG spokesperson said, "Inclusivity is core to the DNA of our company and our brands, including Nylon."
Employees describe a culture of fear, silence, and resignation
The staff cuts and diversity issues have caused morale to plummet.
"We get blindsided a lot by a lot of things," one current employee said. "I think we're all just tense and frustrated."
Numerous sources said the company still hasn't recovered from BDG's catastrophic and failed attempt to relaunch Gawker. After staff raised complaints about the handling of allegations of racist and homophobic comments and behavior from Gawker editorial director Carson Griffith, a group of over 75 employees sent a letter, reviewed by Business Insider, to Bustle's leadership team expressing their dismay.
"We no longer feel that this is a company that protects diversity of race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, size, or otherwise," the letter's first paragraph said. "Continuing to employ someone with a history of racist and homophobic behavior is an unforgivable transgression of your employees' trust."
The letter demanded Griffith's termination and an apology from Goldberg, among other things. Griffith told The New York Times in March that she was "deeply saddened about the allegations that were brought forth by two former staff members. With the conclusion of a rigorous and in-depth third-party investigation, I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting down to work with our new editor in chief."
Goldberg eventually held group meetings with staff members, where he apologized for his handling of the incident, but Griffith remained on staff until the Gawker project was ultimately shuttered in July.
Numerous staffers said they felt like Goldberg and leadership weren't taking them seriously after the affair. "Over the past year bustle has just destroyed their own reputation. I don't feel like we're being listened to," one current staffer said.
Morale is particularly low among BDG's extensive part-time staff, who make up the majority of the writing team. Cuts to freelance budgets have left many part-time writers confused and in the dark, a situation exacerbated by the fact that, some sources said, they are discouraged from fraternizing with other employees. The company held a separate New York Christmas party last year for part-time staff, where attendees were given a single drink ticket.
Nearly everyone who has departed the company signed some form of nondisparagement or nondisclosure agreement, and cited it in their requests for anonymity.
A response to Google's ever-changing algorithm
Former employees who spoke with Business Insider tied the cuts to declining traffic across BDG's sites, which they blamed on changes to Facebook and Google algorithms.
In September, Google issued a release on its blog saying its algorithm was changing to highlight original reporting.
Rosenblum appears to be attempting to right the ship after that guidance.
On top of an emphasis on "joyful" and positive content, she appears to be encouraging a move away from aggregated news and toward reported features, "unexpected" takes, "authoritative content," and expert perspectives.
While employees have praised some of those changes, they also expressed concern that chasing Google's transitory preferences may end up watering down the distinctive properties that they've purchased.
"I don't even think they know what they're buying," one current employee said. "I had no idea what they wanted us to be."
Disclosure: Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is an investor in BDG. The author of this piece worked as an editor at Inverse before it was acquired by BDG and once met with a BDG editor about a potential position at Gawker.
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