Last updated Thursday, 5/14 at 12:19 pm ET.
Condé Nast is laying off “just under 100” staffers in the U.S. as part of a larger cost-cutting effort at the company, CEO Roger Lynch said Wednesday morning.
In a staff memo, Lynch said the cuts are concentrated in “specific areas where we could bring down our costs without limiting our growth priorities,” and that the company is additionally furloughing “a similar number of people in roles that can’t effectively work during this period.”
A Condé Nast rep didn’t respond to an emailed question about which areas of the company have been impacted, specifically. Multiple editorial staffers at Wired were among those let go, and GQ and Vogue each appear to have been impacted as well. The Wall Street Journal reported that cuts were made to “advertising, editorial, and corporate,” quoting a company spokesman.
The news comes one month after Lynch warned employees that job eliminations were likely on the horizon due to the “substantial impact” of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company’s print and digital advertising business. Effective May 1, Condé Nast implemented salary cuts for all employees earning more than $100,000, ranging from 10–20% (or 50%, in Lynch’s case), which he said would remain in effect through the end of September.
Additionally, Lynch said the company was delaying various initiatives until 2021 in order to “reduce workloads on teams, and to focus us on immediate priorities,” and was reducing the working hours “for certain roles,” particularly employees who are eligible for government assistance programs. Staffers would be notified of additional actions, such as job eliminations, by the end of May, he said at the time.
“To our friends and colleagues leaving the company, I would like to say thank you for everything you’ve done for Condé Nast,” Lynch wrote in the memo issued Wednesday. “Our Condé Nast network is here to support you as you seek your next role.”
On April 22, staffers at Wired joined fellow Condé Nast brands Ars Technica, Pitchfork and The New Yorker in announcing their intent to unionize with the NewsGuild of New York.
“The upset caused by this crisis ultimately demonstrates why our members unionized: to protec tour jobs and to have a voice, especially in difficult times,” read a joint statement issued by the unions for the four magazines on Thursday. “We call on Condé Nast to immediately recognize our colleagues in the Wired Union and to negotiate over the proposed reductions at Wired before enacting any cuts.”
