Vice Media is pushing back on a Wall Street Journal report published Tuesday which cites a leaked internal document outlining layoffs at the media company.
“The leaked information obtained by the WSJ has not been vetted or endorsed as a plan by Vice Media Group. This information also does not reflect VMG standard global reporting metrics and while all media companies are taking steps to plan for precautionary measures during COVID-19, no decisions at VMG have been made,” said a Vice Media spokesperson in a statement to TheWrap.
The Journal report, out Tuesday, cited a “planning document” that called for 300 layoffs across the digital operations units in Vice and Refinery29, a website owned by VMG that caters primarily to young women.
The reports of possible layoffs come less than a month after Vice cut salaries for employees who make over $100,000 per year and halted the matching of 401k contributions for 60 days. Those cuts, which were designed to last 90 days, included a 50% salary reduction for CEO Nancy Dubuc (pictured above) while many employees were reduced to four-day workweeks.
Digital outlets and local newspapers are taking a beating as the novel coronavirus rips apart the American economy and ways of life — with some facing an existential crisis as the duration and severity of the pandemic and its aftermath remains unknown.