Vox Media Axes ‘Around 50 People’ in Staff Shakeup

“The groups bearing the biggest impact are the Racked, Curbed, SB Nation, and the Video Services teams,” says Vox Media chief Jim Bankoff

Vox Media laid off dozens of employees in a major staff shakeup, the company announced on Wednesday, with Curbed, Racked and SB Nation feeling the brunt of the cuts.

The news was announced by Vox Media Chief  Jim Bankoff in a memo to employees Wednesday morning.

“This morning we will let go around 50 people and are offering role changes to about a dozen others. The groups bearing the biggest impact are the Racked, Curbed, SB Nation, and the Video Services teams, although there are also some smaller changes elsewhere in the company,” Bankoff said in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by TheWrap.

“Our leadership team and I took this decision very seriously. We know it has a big impact on the lives of our co-workers who will be leaving, as well as on the morale of those who remain. We commit to treating all those affected with professionalism, compassion and dignity,” he added.

The cuts were mainly around social video teams from the company’s smaller brands and suggests a scaled back investment for social video platforms and follows a decision by Facebook earlier this year to move away from news brands.

In his memo, Bankoff did not address the recent decision by Vox Media staff to unionize, a situation critics online pounced on immediately.

In January staff at the company affiliated with WGA East.

“A union will give us the means to maintain what we love about working for this company, and to have a collective voice when we address anything that may change,” the Vox Media Union Organizing Committee said in a statement in January.

News of the layoffs was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

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