BDG Has Its Fourth Round of Cuts in 12 Months

The lifestyle media company Bustle Digital Group laid off 21 full-time employees, roughly 5% of its total headcount, this morning, according to a memo from founder Bryan Goldberg obtained by Adweek. The cuts, which eliminated 8 members of the tech title Inverse as well as other roles in social media and video, mark the fourth round of layoffs the digital media company has undergone in the last 12 months. The company hollowed out Mic and shuttered Input in September, eliminated a dozen part-time roles in November and closed Gawker in February, all of which Adweek first reported. Goldberg blamed the layoffs on the depressed advertising climate, citing a need to reduce expenses. The company also plans to limit hiring and backfilling, reduce its real estate footprint and cut other operational costs, according to the memo. For Digital Publishers, Ad-Supported News Remains an Unsolved Puzzle “While our progress has been terrific,” Goldberg wrote, “I am nonetheless anticipating the remainder of this year will be defined by reduced advertising demand.” The unraveling of the C&I portfolio The layoffs also follow on the heels of the recent departure of Jon Wilde, formerly the senior vice president of editorial overseeing the Culture and Innovation portfolio of BDG. Wilde, whose exodus was first reported last week by Adweek, joined the company last May from GQ. He had been tasked with ushering the C&I portfolio, which housed Input, Inverse, Gawker and Mic at the time, into the next era of their editorial evolution. Instead, one year later, two titles have closed, Mic now operates with a skeleton staff and Inverse—once the flagship of the group—has shrunk significantly, a downsizing that included two of its longest-tenured employees, Corey Plante and Eric Francisco. The broader restructuring of the BDG portfolio reflects larger trends in media monetization strategy. While the company has pared back much of its technology, political and cultural reporting, its parenting and women’s lifestyle portfolios have remained largely untouched. These verticals can attract advertiser interest more easily because their content is brand safe, generates affiliate revenue and caters to readers further down the sales funnel. In addition, the technology sector, whose advertising dollars funded sites like Input and Inverse, has seen its fortunes decline over the last two years after reaching historic peaks during the pandemic. These factors have combined with a broader downturn in advertising demand to force publishers to continually reevaluate their editorial strategy. At BDG, any editorial beyond lifestyle and parenting increasingly appears unsustainable.

Digital Transformation

BDG Lays Off 5% of Staff, Its Fourth Round of Cuts in 12 Months

Its tech title Inverse was affected most heavily

Mark Stenberg

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