New York Mag staff fears Vox will swing ax
Atown hall meeting called by New York Media Chief Executive Pam Wasserstein Wednesday failed to quell unrest in the rank and file following the sale to Vox Media.
Wasserstein and Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff had pledged that there would be no layoffs at the company — which owns New York Magazine and various Web sites — but few media observers think that is possible.
“Nobody on edit believes that there won’t be business/tech/production side layoffs,” said one staffer. “Seems like that is a way to save money.”
The Wall Street Journal said sources estimated New York Media lost more than $15 million last year. There was also worry that Vox would one day close the print version of New York Magazine, which cut back from weekly to every other week in 2014.
“I hope it continues because it binds the brand together,” the staffer said. “Once you kill it, you can’t restart it — it’s dead forever.”
And there was lingering resentment that Wasserstein and Bankoff sat down for an on-the-record interview and photo shoot with The New York Times long before Wasserstein told the staff that they had been sold at 9:11 pm on Tuesday. The NewsGuild of New York said workers were “deeply unsettled by the disrespectful manner in which they informed our staff.”
“That was a great spin it got in the Times,” said one source, who added that the photo of Bankoff and Wasserstein accompanying the story on the Web on Tuesday “made it look like they were getting married.”
“If it was such a great deal, why would you sell it for all stock and no cash?” the source said.
The source expects there to be overlap and potential for layoffs. The source points out that Vox’s Eater and New York Media’s Grub Street seem to fall into the same niche as does NYM’s Science of Us and Vox’s science site, The Verge.
“How can they not let people go?” asked the source, who also speculated that Vox would be less inclined to keep the print publication going than the Wasserstein family trust that has owned it since the sudden death of financier Bruce Wasserstein — who paid $55 million to buy it in 2003.
New York Media will have 12 percent of the Vox Media stock after the deal closes, according to The Journal, which said the stock transaction values the deal at $105 million. It pegged Vox’s valuation at $750 million, down from $1 billion four years ago.
David Haskell, who succeeded the legendary Adam Moss as editor-in-chief earlier this year, took another stab at reassuring his restless staff in a memo Thursday.
“I really appreciated the frank conversations and look forward to more of them,” said Haskell. “One thing I’d like to mention, and make sure you’re not worried about: after the close of the deal with Vox Media, the combined company will of course recognize and bargain with our NewsGuild unit. As Pam mentioned in her note Tuesday night, Vox Media’s editorial employees have an agreement with Writers Guild of America, East, that was ratified earlier this year.”
New York Media’s 185 full-time and part-time staffers opted to unionize in December, but have not hammered out a contract yet. After 14 months, Writers Guild wrapped up its sometimes-contentious negotiations with management in June, in a deal l that expires in 2022.
Ebony suit
Seven laid-off workers at Ebony Media have filed a lawsuit seeking to recover back pay and unreimbursed expenses, plus missing contributions that were to have been made to their 401(k) plan and additional damages.
Ebony and Jet were sold in June 2016 to the Austin-based private equity firm CVG, headed by businessman Michael Gibson, who is named as a defendant along with human resources executive Elizabeth Burnett. Between May 19 and June 14, the company laid off most of its staff, according to the suit, and failed to pay from one to four weeks of severance, the suit alleges.
“Paying people for their work is a matter of basic human dignity, and the practice of denying employees their wages immediately before firing them is especially harmful,” said attorney Innessa Huot, who is representing Joshua David Mardice, Jasmine Washington, Juan Miranda, Preston NNorman, Christina Santi, Sandeep Singh and Rickey Turner, who were laid off at various times between mid-May and mid-June this year.
“By filing this lawsuit, we intend to hold Ebony and CVG Group to account for their actions. Ebony has not produced a print version of the popular magazine since the October/November 2018 issue.
Jet magazine, which was also acquired by CVG, had already gone all digital under previous owner Johnson Publishing.
Calls and e-mails to Ebony Media were not returned by press time.