Vice Media Group undertook a round of layoffs Thursday, just 15 months after letting go of 155 employees during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vice Media Chief Digital Officer Cory Haik sent a midday email to staff on Thursday. The email, obtained by HuffPost, has the subject line “Our continued Global alignment and growth.”
The email doesn’t mention staff cuts until more than a dozen paragraphs in, describing the layoffs as a result of the company’s “continued global alignment.”
“We’ve unfortunately had to say goodbye to some of our friends and colleagues today,” Haik’s email reads. “We wish them well and thank them for their dedicated service over the years.”
Included in the layoffs were digital managing editor Meredith Balkus, Life editorial director Casey Johnston, features editor Kate Dries and writers Josh Terry and Jelisa Castrodale on the Vice side. Senior news editor Leora Yashari of Refinery29, which is owned by VMG, was also included in the layoffs. Each of them shared the news of their job loss on Twitter.
A source familiar with Vice Media Group happenings told HuffPost that the layoffs affected less than 1% of the company’s global work force, that they were only from Vice digital and Refinery29, and that fewer than 20 people were part of the cuts.
The source also emphasized that VMG is not cutting anyone from the Vice News digital team, and that news is still a priority there.
The Vice Union confirmed in a statement Thursday afternoon that 17 people had been laid off. The group lambasted the move as a “macabre annual ritual.”
“We have worked in this industry long enough to know today’s metrics are tomorrow’s punchlines, and yesterday’s pivot is today’s clumsy tumble,” the union said. “What makes our work meaningful is the expertise and hard work of the people callously brushed aside today.”
A current Vice employee, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, told HuffPost that they are “drained” after having to go through a third round of layoffs during a pandemic.
“VICE has never succeeded in laying off their hard-working and talented employees in a humane way,” the employee said. “Today’s layoffs are no exception, and I’d go so far as to call them ghoulish. Two employees, one from VICE and another from R29, were laid off while on maternity leave.”
“There was no warning given, leaving our employees struggling to understand what was happening,” they added. “Once again, as has become customary with VICE Media, executives have taken a gamble on yet another ill-informed, poorly planned pivot that is leaving staffers at various levels scrambling to figure out how to proceed, and my colleagues are paying for it.”
The New York Times reported in July that Vice Media would be “putting a greater emphasis on videos and other forms of visual storytelling,” and that it had recently launched a new video series, “Sex Re-education,” on Refinery29. Vice Media planned to reduce the number of traditional text articles by 40% to 50%, the Times reported, citing a company spokesperson.
Haik told the Times that “you can’t be a youth media company if you’re not focused on where the youth are consuming media.”
“And more and more, that’s off-platform, that’s built-for-mobile,” she said.
The company also said it would be hiring more producers as part of its investment in visual storytelling.
The Times report “created major stress and anxiety across our teams,” the Vice employee told HuffPost on Thursday, adding that leadership “repeatedly” told the newsroom that the publication had misquoted Haik.
“Only to find weeks later that exactly what was reported is happening,” the employee said. “And now 15 of my colleagues are out of work, and everyone’s job is changing completely. It’s disgusting and demoralizing, but sadly not shocking.”
Vice Media Group laid off 155 employees in May 2020, accounting for more than 5% of its world headcount. About a third of those let go were U.S. employees, according to Variety, while the rest were international staff.
The organization cited revenue declines stemming from the coronavirus pandemic as its impetus for the layoffs. Vice Media Group CEO Nancy Dubuc reportedly wrote in an internal memo at the time: “While losing even one job feels like too many, these decisions ultimately rest with me and I assure you that we went to great lengths to preserve jobs.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misattributed a quote from a New York Times article to a Vice Media spokesperson.