What a chaotic and controversial week at Condé Nast.
It started with the announcement that Teen Vogue would be folded into its sister magazine Vogue, with several Teen Vogue staffers being laid off, including its editor-in-chief.
Then news broke Thursday that four staffers at Condé Nast were abruptly fired after they, and several others, confronted the company’s head of human resources, demanding answers as to what was going on with Teen Vogue.
The four fired were leaders in the Condé United union. There was Alma Avalle, a writer and digital producer at Bon Appétit; Jake Lahut, a senior writer at Wired who covers the White House; Jasper Lo, a senior fact-checker at The New Yorker; and Ben Dewey, a videographer at Condé Nast Entertainment.
Semafor’s Max Tani wrote, “On Wednesday, more than a dozen employees gathered outside the office of Stan Duncan, Condé Nast’s head of human resources, demanding to speak with him about the Teen Vogue decision, and other recent cuts at the company. Duncan told staff that they could not be congregating outside his office, and asked them to return to work. When he tried to leave, one employee asked Duncan if he was running away from the unionized employees.”
Tani added, “A member of the union implied that the decision to fold Teen Vogue into its parent magazine would impact the company’s political coverage; one of the fired employees asked Duncan what he planned on doing to stand up to the Trump administration.”
Duncan reportedly said, “We’d like you to move forward.”
An employee who was later fired reportedly said back, “We’d like you to answer our questions.”
Now comes the legal stuff.
The NewsGuild of New York and Condé United put out a statement saying, “These egregious terminations are a flagrant breach of the Just Cause terms of our contract and an unprecedented violation of their federally protected rights as union members to participate in a collective action. Through these illegal terminations, Condé Nast management is attempting to intimidate and silence our members’ advocacy for the courageous cultural and political journalism of Teen Vogue, as well as diverting attention away from the obvious lack of corporate leadership at the company.”
Meanwhile, Condé Nast is fighting back, too, after the events of this week, especially the confrontation outside of the HR department. It has filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the NewsGuild of New York for what it says is “repeated and egregious disregard of our collective bargaining agreement.”
In a statement to Semafor, a Condé Nast spokesperson said, “Extreme misconduct is unacceptable in any professional setting. This includes aggressive, disruptive, and threatening behavior of any kind. We have a responsibility to provide a workplace where every employee feels respected and able to do their job without harassment or intimidation. We also cannot ignore behavior that crosses the line into targeted harassment and disruption of business operations. We remain committed to working constructively with the union and all of our employees.”
So, how aggressive was the confrontation? The Wrap’s Corbin Bolies breaks it down in “Watch the Condé Nast Staffers-HR Confrontation That Led to 4 Firings.”
The Wrap obtained video footage of the confrontation, and Bolies writes: “Condé Nast editorial staff confronted the company’s head of HR over layoffs and followed him down a hallway while he directed them to go back to work but did not appear to exhibit ‘extreme misconduct’ as claimed by the company, according to video obtained exclusively by TheWrap.”
Here is one of the videos.
News layoffs steady as job cuts elsewhere spike
For this item, I turn it over to my Poynter colleague, Angela Fu.
Job cuts across the United States are spiking, according to a report released Thursday by employment firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. But for the news sector, the cuts are nothing the industry hasn’t already seen.
More than 1 million jobs have been cut so far this year, an increase of 65% compared to the same period last year. That is the highest level of jobs cut since the 2020 pandemic-induced economic recession, when 2.3 million jobs were eliminated by November. This past month, specifically, has seen a surge in cuts with more than 153,000 jobs lost. It was the worst October since 2003.
Many of those cuts came from tech companies shedding jobs due to “AI integration, slower demand, and efficiency pressures,” the report states. While the media industry as a whole saw an increase in job cuts — 16,680 so far this year, up 26% from the same period last year — the news sector is faring comparatively better. Broadcast, digital and print news outlets have cut 2,075 jobs so far this year, down 41% from the same period last year.
That number will likely rise as “layoff season” begins in December, when companies rush to get ready for the new fiscal year. This past week has already seen layoffs at Teen Vogue, Axios and McClatchy. The Washington Post and Paramount are also reportedly preparing to execute fresh rounds of layoffs.
The industry has already lost an enormous amount of journalists. A recent Northwestern University study estimated that in the past two decades, more than 75% of newspaper jobs have vanished. Much of that is due to advances in technology. Tech giants like Google and Facebook have diverted away digital advertising revenue, and now, AI companies are redirecting online traffic. Congress’ decision to claw back funding for public broadcasting at President Donald Trump’s request could also induce further layoffs at public radio and television stations.
Winning is losing?
So how are the right and conservative media handling the Democrats' dominant performance in this week’s elections? Uh, not well.
Most are taking the nothing-to-see-here approach. They claim that the Democrats won a bunch of races they were expected to win in typically blue or purple states such as New Jersey and Virginia. (Although, Virginia is flipping from a Republican governor to a Democrat.)
But one prominent right-wing media personality is taking a novel approach saying that, “By winning, the Democrats are actually losing.”
I’m not paraphrasing. That’s the actual stance.
As Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher noted, Fox News’ primetime host Laura Ingraham is making that argument. On her Wednesday episode of “The Ingraham Angle,” she included in her broadcast an online graphic that said: ‘By Winning, Democrats Are Actually Losing”
Ingraham told viewers, essentially, that the policies touted by Tuesday night’s victors, including New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, are bound to fail.
Ingraham said, “But for now, New York will have to learn the hard way. New Jersey will be poorly governed, as usual, with mega red tape and high taxes. And in Virginia, parents are gonna be disenfranchised from the education of their children, and taxes are likely to go up there as well. So by winning, Democrats are, in a way, losing, because they’re gonna simply drive more people to the red states where life is easier, safer, and less expensive, and the government generally more responsive.”
Gee, the Democrats who won Tuesday night might now be regretting their victories.
Looking ahead
Meanwhile, the left is using Tuesday's good results to start getting excited about 2026 and 2028. Could the Democrats actually flip the House and/or Senate in next year’s midterm? And could they regain the White House in 2028?
I guess it’s never too early to start looking ahead, so here’s a good piece from The Washington Post’s Amber Phillips: “Ranking the 2028 Democratic presidential contenders.”
Media news, tidbits and interesting links for your weekend review
- More aftershocks from Tuesday’s election results. It’s The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum with “Right-Wing Media Warns of Socialism and Chaos After Mamdani Victory.”
- The Washington Post’s Isaac Arnsdorf and Jacob Bogage with “Heritage staff in open revolt over leader’s defense of Tucker Carlson.”
- And here’s The New York Times’ Clyde McGrady with “Nick Fuentes’s Rise Puts MAGA Movement in a ‘Time of Choosing.’”
- California Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi — the nation’s first and still only female Speaker of the House — announced Thursday that she will retire when her term ends in 2027. She will have represented San Francisco in Congress for 39 years when she leaves office. Pelosi writes this piece for The Atlantic: “America Is Great When America Is Good.”
- Speaking of Pelosi, here’s Louis Jacobson from Poynter’s PolitiFact with “Nancy Pelosi to retire: How the Democratic leader stretched facts and became a misinformation magnet.”
- The Guardian’s Edward Helmore with “New York Post’s anti-Mamdani front page is a hit – with his supporters.”
- For Poynter, Michelle Zenarosa, the editor-in-chief at LA Public Press, with “When your local reporter needs the same protection as a war correspondent.”
- Front Office Sports’ Eric Fisher and Ryan Glasspiegel with “ESPN Shutters Betting App and Pivots to DraftKings Deal.” And here’s Awful Announcing’s Ben Axelrod with “ESPN Bet will go down as ESPN’s signature failure.”
- Nieman Lab’s Sarah Scire with “‘Biased,’ ‘boring,’ ‘chaotic,’ and ‘bad’: A majority of teens hold negative views of news media, report finds.”
- Enock Nyariki from the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter with “The UK’s fact-checkers are sending their AI to help Americans cover elections.”
- This is so cool. Christine Mi of The Washington Post with words and illustrations in “7 nights at sea aboard the last grand ocean liner.”
- Earlier this week, I tried to link to a Boston Globe story from Dana Gerber, but I gave a bad link. Here’s the correct one: “She was lonely and depressed. Her ‘beautiful little AI family’ changed everything.” (Note: the story is behind a paywall.)
- If you get a few moments this weekend, be sure to check out the latest episode of “The Poynter Report Podcast” with my guest Kristen Hare, Poynter faculty, director of craft and local news and the author of Local Edition, Poynter’s weekly newsletter for and about local journalists. We dig into the latest issues — the good, the bad and the future — of local news.
More resources for journalists
- Watch both webinars in full to deepen your coverage of women in criminal justice and become eligible to apply for one of five $10,000 reporting grants — today is your last chance to apply. Enroll now.
- Interested in learning more about funding local news? Start here.
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- Join 650+ women leaders transformed by this leadership program since 2015. Apply today.
- Journalists: It’s time to take care of yourself, too. Enroll now in a free session on embodiment practices to rest and regroup.
- Amp up your editing skills, improve your work life and advance your career with Poynter’s ACES Certificates.
- Stop wasting hours on repetitive tasks — automate them instead. Learn how.
- Access a list of mental health reporting resources on funding, source-building and more.
- Experienced managers: Develop the must-have skills journalists need to lead media organizations of the future. Apply now.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].
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