Paper Magazine “broke” the internet back in 2014 with its cover shoot of celebrity Kim Kardashian. After going viral for the iconic photographs nearly a decade ago, Paper Magazine has now reportedly laid off all of its editorial staff.
The magazine was an iconic fashion and pop culture publication based in the United States of America that was founded in 1984, but declining sales and lower ad revenue led to the magazine shutting down on Wednesday when it got rid of all its employees in charge of the editorial side of the business.
Paper Magazine is the latest media company to come forward with internal struggles in recent days. The Paper Magazine debacle came on the heels of Vice Media laying off a large portion of its staff as well as shutting down Vice News Tonight. In addition, BuzzFeed News shut down its entire newsroom in April 2023, much to the shock of the internet community, which had come to rely on BuzzFeed stories again and again.
Other media groups are also struggling in today’s TikTok climate. Among them is Vox Media, which is the parent company of New York Magazine, The Verge, Thrillist, and Vulture. Back in January, Vox Media announced that it would be laying off about seven percent of its workforce across the company. That amounted to a staggering one hundred thirty people who used to work for the media company.
Adweek reported that Paper Magazine’s layoffs would affect as few as twenty and as many as thirty full-time staffers, including writers and editors. The layoffs will go into effect on the last Friday of April and will see the magazine suffer in the coming weeks and months.
With Paper Magazine’s editorial staff laid off, the editorial operations will immediately cease. However, Editor-in-Chief Justin Moran will remain at the company until May and will be in charge of publishing projects that have not yet made it to print.
Moran wrote on Instagram: “Team Paper was laid off today. It’s been my greatest privilege and honor to lead the most talented group of people I know. And create a magazine together that we’re all so proud of. I’m not sure what the future holds for me, but in the meantime, we will be publishing our new, unreleased projects on Paper in the coming weeks.”
News editor Jade Gomez tweeted, “The cat is out of the bag. Our entire staff was laid off.”
She also told Resident Advisor, “It was a surprise, but deep down, I felt something was coming.”
Paper Magazine announced the layoff of its entire editorial staff during a company-wide meeting on April 27, 2023. The news was effective immediately, and people lost their jobs during that meeting.
Vice Media also cut more than one hundred jobs. Co-CEOs Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala told staff in a note, “We are transforming VICE News to better withstand market realities and more closely align with how and where we see our audiences engaging with our content most.”