Paste magazine cut its film and TV teams on Monday in a restructure that will focus the site on music coverage.
Employees laid off in the site’s shake-up Monday included associate movies editor Jesse Hassenger and TV and books editor Lacy Baugher Milas, who first shared the news on X.
The media company’s President and Editor-in-Chief Josh Jackson said in a statement to TheWrap that Paste’s TV and movies coverage will continue being published on pastemagazine.com and will be written by reporters from Paste Media sister site The A.V. Club, which it acquired in 2024.
“We’ll still have TV and movies coverage on Paste, it will just be led by our TV and movies teams at The A.V. Club. But the heart of Paste has always been music, and we want to be the premiere music site on the internet,” Jackson said. “We believe our music coverage has never been better than under Matt Mitchell’s leadership, and that’s where the Paste team’s focus will be moving forward.”
“Today, @PasteMagazine shuttered all its non-music verticals, a choice I am both professionally and personally heartbroken about,” Milas wrote in a tweet re-shared by Hassenger.
Movies editor Jim Vorel retained his role in the restructuring.
Today, @PasteMagazine shuttered all its non-music verticals, a choice I am both professionally and personally heartbroken about. Sadly,I am once again looking for a place that wants to let me write about Books and TV on the regular, so hit me up if that’s you or anyone you know.
— Lacy Baugher Milas (@LacyMB) November 17, 2025
Many Paste contributors also lamented the news on social media.
“I wrote so many things there that I still love to death and it’s awful to see things end this way,” Kathryn Porter, a former intern-turned-contributor to the site, said.
“One of the first outlets that shepherded me when starting to freelance in 2022,” Rendy Jones said. “Such an incredible team of writers and editors. Hire Lacy. Hire everyone affected.”
Founded in 1998 and led by Jackson since 2002, the Atlanta-based entertainment news site and former glossy magazine has garnered a dedicated readership for its incisive writing on music, movies, TV, games, books, comics and more. It has seen a number of iterations over the years, including cutting its print edition in 2010, a move that laid off nearly all of its full-time staff.
Paste Media, meanwhile, has seen a number of acquisitions of other news sites in recent years. In addition to The A.V. Club in March 2024, the company relaunched Splinter News that same month and in November 2023 acquired Jezebel from G/O Media in an all-cash deal.
In July of this year, Paste spun off its gaming coverage into Endless Mode, a new site dedicated exclusively to gaming and anime coverage. Garrett Martin, the longtime editor of Paste’s gaming section, said at the time that launching the site was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story stated that Movies Editor Jim Vorel was impacted by the layoffs, but Jackson clarified Vorel will continue to be employed by Paste Media. The story has been updated.
