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Jezebel Goes Dark [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-11-11  

Jezebel, the iconic feminist media site has shut down. After 16 years of covering news important to women, told by women, it shall be no longer. I admit I used to read almost all of Gawker Media, but mostly I loved Jezebel. They covered women’s issues and news through the voice of women writers. This is becoming all too rare in the digital media age but it especially hurts as there is little left dedicated to women journalists speaking to women. They survived Gawkers demise but could not survive the corporate take over of what is left of the site.

Jezebel was indefinitely suspended on Thursday as major layoffs hit G/O Media, The Daily Beast has learned. “Unfortunately, our business model and the audiences we serve across our network did not align with Jezebel’s,” Spanfeller wrote in the memo. “And when that became clear, we undertook an expansive search for a new, perhaps better home that might ensure Jezebel a path forward. It became a personal mission of Lea Goldman, who worked tirelessly on the project, talking with over two dozen potential buyers. It is a testament to Jezebel’s heritage and bonafides that so many players engaged us. Still, despite every effort, we could not find Jez a new home.”

Okay sure, Spanfeller.

Variety:

Laura Bassett quit as Jezebel’s editor-in-chief in August 2023, writing in a post on X/Twitter, “I have reluctantly resigned from Jezebel, because the company that owned us refused to treat my staff with basic human decency.” On Thursday, Bassett said in a post on X, “I’m obviously boiling and have too much to say on this subject. But for now I’ll just say my heart is with the entire Jez staff who just got laid off, including incredible abortion reporters at a time when the beat couldn’t be more relevant to national politics. Lauren Tousignant, who had been serving as Jezebel’s interim EIC, wrote in a tweet about the site’s shutdown, “Will have more to say soon, but for now, I am just so pissed and so sad, but mostly I’m so pissed.”

I am with her on the pissed and sad part. So much of digital media is a disaster for journalists. G/O Media is part of a private equity firm, which I suppose is not shocking these days. Staff left at all the sites have complained of lack of diversity and meta control of content. Just ask the former Deadspin staff.

I hope the amazing women at Jezebel are able to find an outlet for their voices. They are much needed.

I think The Guardian stated it most succinctly:

Jezebel was a place, a rare one, where young feminists could gather, learn from each other, and shore up their political identity. Not every line Jezebel took was one I would defend, and not all the ideas published there were good ones. But a dedicated women’s media was essential to the maintenance and evolution of a feminist tradition, a tradition that is more essential than ever in our current moment of abortion bans and anti-feminist backlash. Without sites like Jezebel, who will carry feminism’s torch? Where will young women, angered and confused by their gendered mistreatment, go to struggle with others in the search for a more just world? I don’t know yet. But I know that Jezebel was a resource for such women, and that they, and we, are worse off without it.

Peace.

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