Vox Media — the parent company of publications like Vox, New York magazine, The Verge, Eater and SBNation — is expected to furlough roughly 100 employees this week in response to the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, CNBC reported on Monday.
Though negotiations over the furloughs may alter the exact number of employees impacted, the furloughs — lasting for at least three months — would most affect staffers at Vox-owned sites like Eater and SBNation whose beats have been diminished by the pandemic, according to CNBC. Three-month pay cuts for the company’s top earners are also being discussed, CNBC reported.
Spokespersons for Vox Media and the Writers Guild of America, East — a union representing about 350 Vox staffers — did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s requests for comment.
In an email to staffers last week that was obtained by CNBC, Vox Media’s CEO Jim Bankoff cautioned that the company’s advertising revenue was facing a decline.
“While at this point I can’t put an exact number on our own decline, I know that — just like nearly all other companies and publishers — we have already seen a significant impact in March and our business will continue to be deeply affected this quarter, next quarter and likely for the remainder of 2020,” Bankoff wrote. “It’s important to emphasize that we expect our ad business to rebound eventually, but since the timing cannot be predicted, we need to plan with extra caution.”
The potential furloughs at Vox Media come alongside similar actions that will be taken by publishers across the industry, including Condé Nast, which owns magazines like The New Yorker, Vogue and Vanity Fair; BuzzFeed; Valence Media, which owns The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard; and VICE Media.