The future of (music) journalism

Pitchfork, GQ, and media layoffs. [READER]( The Daily Reader January 24, 2024 How do you escape death by 1,000 cuts? Last Friday, [Sports Illustrated employees received notice]( that most staffers would be laid off. The same day Los Angeles Times union members [walked off the job to protest]( upcoming cuts that are expected to eliminate 20 percent of the newsroom. (Layoffs at the Los Angeles Times began Tuesday.) Last Wednesday, Condé Nast [announced GQ will absorb Pitchfork]( and then proceeded [to lay off more than half]( of the vaunted music news site’s editorial staff. In December 2023, The Washington Post completed [a cycle of buyouts after management announced a plan to eliminate 240 positions]( earlier in the fall. In November 2023, [Condé Nast announced it would lay off 5 percent]( of its workforce. In November 2023, [Vox announced it would lay off 4 percent of its staff](. In November 2023, [G/O Media laid off 23 staffers and shuttered Jezebel](. In November 2023, [Vice Media announced a round of layoffs]( expected to be fewer than 100 employees. In October 2023, [Bandcamp laid off half its staff]( including several editorial employees and [the union’s entire bargaining unit](. In July 2023, The New York Times [disbanded its sports desk]( which employed 35 reporters and editors; the news organization has since repurposed stories written and published by the Athletic, the sports news site the Times purchased in January 2022. In June 2023, [National Geographic laid off 19 editorial employees]( including the last of its staff writers, and halted newsstand sales. In May 2023, [Vice Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy](. In May 2023, Paramount Media Networks, Showtime, and MTV Entertainment Studios [cut 25 percent of its workforce and shuttered MTV News](. In April 2023, [Buzzfeed shuttered its news division]( and laid off 60 employees. In April 2023, [Vice Media canceled Vice News Tonight and announced layoffs and restructuring](. In April 2023, [Paper Magazine shut down and laid off its entire staff](. It’s [since been bought]( by conservative wannabe media mogul Brian Calle, who [purchased the LA Weekly in 2017, laid off most of the staff]( and proceeded to turn that alt-weekly into a husk; in 2020, [Calle purchased the Village Voice]( which was shuttered in 2018, and half-resurrected it into a zombie quarterly. In February 2023, [Bustle Digital Group laid off 8 percent of its staff and shuttered Gawker]( 18 months after relaunching the site. In January 2023, [Vox announced it laid off 7 percent of its staff](. I could keep this list going. There are plenty of journalism cuts I’ve missed. There are plenty of news outlets I miss after severe cutbacks and closures. Bustle Digital Group shuttered [Input in 2019]( and [the Outline in 2020](. I am still despondent with how G/O throttled the A.V. Club, [forcing Chicago staffers to take severance]( or move to LA, where they’d face terrible job prospects (this past July, [A.V. Club first published stories written by AI; it went poorly](. I’m still furious at how [G/O treated the former employees of Deadspin]( who quit en masse in 2019. (I’m glad [Defector]( is doing well.) I am, to put it mildly, not keen on G/O management. I’m still sad that [MTV dismantled the great news team Jessica Hopper assembled back in 2017](. I’m still sad that [ESPN closed Grantland in 2015](. I’m still sad that Pitchfork [shuttered the Dissolve in 2015](. Of course, right now, I’m upset about Condé Nast half-dismantling Pitchfork because of my interests and my beat, and because I have friends, acquaintances, and other critics I admire who’ve contributed to the site over the years. (Full disclosure: I’ve got two bylines on Pitchfork, [though I originally wrote the largest story]( for The Pitchfork Review when Jessica Hopper turned that print quarterly into a peerless publication in the mid-2010s. The Pitchfork Review quietly disappeared after Condé Nast purchased Pitchfork.) I’m anxious about reorganizing Pitchfork under GQ, [a publication that recently pulled a story]( critical of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav after the company complained about the piece. But what’s evident to me is the same thing that’s led to a torrent of takes greatly exaggerating Pitchfork’s demise: it is going to be harder for Pitchfork staffers and freelancers to do the work under these circumstances. I feel for the folks still on staff. Journalism is hard enough as it is when you don’t have to grapple with management stripping your organization in public. I know the challenge of working under such strange conditions. The Reader narrowly escaped closure three times between 2017 (when Tronc attempted to buy the Sun-Times, which owned the Reader at the time) and 2022 (which, well, I don’t want to rehash right now). Occasionally, the thought that I might be writing my last Reader story lit a fire under me. Last year [I won]( a Society for Features Journalism award for [a 2022 story on Bam Bam]( that I wrote while simultaneously [working on an early draft of an editorial]( that documented some of the staff’s struggles under our ownership crisis. I also know how painful, stressful, and draining such circumstances can be; in quiet moments, it felt like I could do no more than write my byline. I don’t doubt the folks still working on Pitchfork will be able to continue to do the work that’s made the site a lodestar for music fanatics. No one decides to become a music journalist because they don’t care about music. The pay ain’t great, the industry at-large marginalizes and misunderstands our work, and it can be really deflating to pour yourself into a story when few people end up reading it. But it’s a gift to have the infrastructural support to think about music, to use the time to try and make sense of the swirling emotions I feel while listening to a new song, and to report on an artist’s tangible effect on my community that’s otherwise invisible to the public. I don’t take this for granted. I don’t get the sense anyone who writes for Pitchfork does either; the work they publish makes that clear. New York Magazine critic Craig Jenkins’s [optimistic view of Pitchfork]( amid this sad news rings true to me. Pitchfork showed a lot of us what could be possible even as the media landscape constricted, and there was always a mass audience willing to engage with the criticism and eager to listen to an unknown emerging artist because they appeared on the site. I, too, am anxious about the site’s future, but I also know that as long as there’s music, there will be a lot of people who want to know more about it—and plenty of people willing to dedicate their lives to writing thoughtfully about music. The challenge now is establishing a model for music journalism to provide the people doing the work with stable jobs. Because I can’t accept eliminating these positions and replacing them with nothing. On another note about the journalism landscape, The Nation interim senior editor [Jack Mirkinson just wrote a great piece]( about the U.S. media’s non-response to the Israeli military [killing Palestinian journalists en masse](. The [Committee to Protect Journalists reports]( that at least 76 Palestinian journalists have been killed as of January 23, though the [International Federation of Journalists]( [Truthout]( and [other sources]( state that the real number is even larger. I’m distraught by this in ways I am still having difficulty articulating, which has been the case since October 7. I’m an American-Israeli who has long advocated for Palestinian freedom and equality, which should be evident to anyone who clicks on the stories I share at the bottom of my newsletters, or reads [my concert previews]( or [my occasional reporting]( or listened to my appearances on Ben Joravsky’s podcast (I’m on it again this week). If it isn’t evident, I’ll say it more clearly: I want a ceasefire. On another note, I’m dismayed 28 alderpersons asked to delay the City Council’s ceasefire resolution [“in deference to International Holocaust Remembrance Day.”]( I find it shameful to instrumentalize the Shoah for the purpose of pushing back against a resolution calling for an end to the bombardment of Gaza. I fundamentally believe the best way to honor those killed in a genocide is to prevent more bloodshed. I bring all of this up now because I believe all of us working in journalism share a connection. My sadness about the industry isn’t confined to music journalism, although my position gives me some insight to talk about trends in this field. I don’t need to suffer under the looming threat of a military bombardment to know that I oppose the killing of journalists. Sincerely, [Subterranean Cinema: The Missing Pieces of the US Video Underground]( by Vincent Albarano [“U.S. citizens with Chicago-area roots stuck in Gaza: ‘Our lives are at stake’,”]( by Nader Issa and Kade Heather (Chicago Sun-Times) [“Watermelon surprise: How the daughter of Hollywood stars helped a Chicago clothing company raise money, awareness for Gaza,”]( by Rummana Hussain (Chicago Sun-Times) ali’s baby, [itgetseasier]( Semi-Cycle, [Momentum]( Birthmark, [Birth of Omni]( ❄️ Leor’s [“Fourth January 2024 playlist”]( [Emo trio Routine Fuss celebrate a high-energy new EP]( Plus: Dance party Gyrate brings Black diasporic sounds to Wicker Park, James Swanberg’s new band of teamsters make their live debut, and more. by [DMB (Debbie-Marie Brown)]( and [Leor Galil]( | [Read more]( → [Chicago’s Blackwater Sniper confront the violence of our time]( by [Monica Kendrick]( | [Read more]( → [You don’t know shoegaze till you’ve heard Lovesliescrushing]( by [Leor Galil]( | [Read more]( → [Guitarist Jeff Parker brings his most inclusive combo back to town]( by [Bill Meyer]( | [Read more]( → What's now, what's next. 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