An unknown number of Rolling Stone staff, including some of the storied publication’s most prominent voices, were laid off on Monday, Oliver Darcy reported.
The cuts come as parent company Penske Media Corp. is actively looking for ways to shrink headcount across its many properties. However, they may also be the sign of a change in direction under new CEO Julian Holguin, rather than a staff reduction, as Rolling Stone has also posted multiple new job listings.
According to Darcy, among the affected Rolling Stone staffers are executive digital director Lisa Tozzi, chief television critic Alan Sepinwall and copy chief Steven Pearl. As of this writing, none of them have commented publicly. Representatives for PMC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap.
“You may have heard that things are tough in media right now. The Grim Reaper has come for a lot of my friends over the last few years, and this week, he came for me. I’ve been informed that my time at Rolling Stone is over, effective immediately,” Sepinwall shared in a Tuesday blog post. “I have one online story still to be published, plus a small feature in the November print issue of the magazine, but that’s unfortunately the end of my affiliation with a place I’ve really enjoyed working at for the last seven and a half years.
In August, PMC owner and CEO Jay Penske surprised employees companywide when he announced that, beginning in Oct. all employees are required to work at least 4 days per week at one of the company’s offices, or lose their jobs. Penske’s memo indicated the company is expecting some attrition as a result.
The mandate applies not just to staff working for PMC, but to all publications and brands, which includes Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Deadline, the Golden Globes and South by Southwest.
The mandate is reportedly a source of much confusion among the company’s publications, as many Penske-owned media properties have never required staff to work on site at all. In fact, many of them employ people who live nowhere near Los Angeles, New York, Austin or Miami, where PMC maintains offices.
Penske indicated in his announcement that the in-office requirement is related to corporate culture and productivity goals, and isn’t connected to financial or business concerns. The memo even suggested outright that remote workers are less devoted to their job and less productive, an assertion multiple studies since 2020 have found to be untrue. Speculation by outside observers is that the move is more about reducing headcount without having to report layoffs.
If so, it may be producing the desired result, as earlier Monday, NBC announced it has hired reporter Rebecca Keegan away from THR.
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