The irreverent feminist web site Jezebel is making a comeback lower than a month after it was shut down.
Paste Journal, a digital popular culture publication primarily based in Atlanta, announced Wednesday that it was shopping for Jezebel.com from G/O Media, which closed it and laid off its staff earlier this month.
Jezebel’s “acquisition means that the critical information and content that Jezebel readers have come to rely on will live on,” Paste Founder and Editor-in-Chief Josh Jackson mentioned in a ready assertion. “Jezebel’s unique voice and commitment to storytelling make it a perfect addition to our portfolio.”
G/0 Media mentioned it was shutting down Jezebel after attempting unsuccessfully for months to discover a purchaser for the positioning, which was first launched in 2007 by Gawker Media and swiftly gained an impassioned following with its mixture of searing commentary on gender politics and edgy popular culture protection.
Jackson instructed The Related Press through e-mail that Paste grew to become fascinated with shopping for Jezebel the day after it shut down and moved rapidly to safe the all-cash deal. He mentioned the positioning will begin publishing once more as early as this week. He mentioned Paste is looking for a brand new editor-in-chief and speaking to different job candidates, prioritizing Jezebel’s former staffers. The acquisition was first reported by The New York Occasions.
“It took us a day to realize we could be the ones to bring it back from the dead,” Jackson mentioned. “But it was important that we do a deal quickly and get the site back up and running so the devoted audience would still be there.”
Together with political points like abortion, Jezebel grew to become identified for its takedowns of movie star tradition and the style industries that helped make topics like “body shaming” and “rape culture” a part of the nationwide discourse. Like many different digital publications, nonetheless, Jezebel struggled lately to discover a sustainable enterprise mannequin as digital advertising plummeted.
Jezebel grew to become a part of the G/0 Media portfolio in 2019. Tensions with the mother or father firm’s management preceded its shutdown, which Jezebel writers blamed on G/0 Media’s failure to search for a income mannequin extra appropriate to to the positioning’s mission and viewers.
G/0 Media, which additionally owns Gizmodo, Quartz, the Onion and the Root, mentioned it closed Jezebel as a part of a restructuring to deal with financial headwinds and a tough digital promoting setting. G/0 Media CEO Jim Spanfeller additionally mentioned it had develop into clear that the mother or father firm’s “business model and the audiences we serve across our network did not align with Jezebel’s.” However he additionally mentioned he had not given up on the concept that Jezebel would discover a new dwelling and relaunch.
“We have been working on the sale of Jezebel for months and are delighted that the site has found a new home,” Spanfeller mentioned in a ready assertion.
