Samantha Lee/Business Insider
- Digital media company Bustle Digital Group is making staffing cuts and salary reductions related to the coronavirus pandemic.
- Sources said at about 25 staffers will be cut, and those making over $70,000 at the company will receive tiered salary reductions.
- Culture publication The Outline appears to be hit the hardest, with BDG laying off all of its staffers and shuttering it.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Digital media company Bustle Digital Group is cutting about 25 employees and making salary reductions amid grim economic projections related to the coronavirus pandemic, according to company sources and a BDG representative.
Multiple sources told Business Insider there would be salary reductions affecting all employees earning over $70,000, who will receive a temporary 18 percent salary reduction. Executives are said to be taking a 30 percent reduction. CEO Bryan Goldberg will reduce his salary by 85 percent.
A company spokesperson said in a statement, "The unprecedented impact of COVID-19 has forced us to make some tough business decisions. Most staff will be taking temporary tiered salary reductions and unfortunately, we have eliminated two dozen positions across the company."
In October 2019, BDG said it employed 315 people.
The entire staff of The Outline has been cut
The news began to trickle in Friday morning as staffers at The Outline, a publication created by Joshua Topolsky, tweeted their layoffs.
The Outline's Leah Finnegan was the first to tweet the news out, which apparently served as a first notification for some laid off employees. In total, five full-time employees were laid of at The Outline and one staffer at BDG science publication Inverse was laid off Thursday.
The state of the publication itself appears to be in limbo. A company spokesperson said in a statement that "We are halting operations of The Outline going forward. We will continue to host the publication and the archives, and Josh Topolsky will be exploring alternative paths forward for the publication's future."
One source says that there were discussions of buying back The Outline brand from the company to possibly restart it with a subscription model, but that those conversations were in their infancy.
A history of cuts and a grim outlook
The news follows numerous media companies announcing cost-cutting measures as advertisers hit pause on major campaigns and avoid association with coronavirus news. In the past month, digital media companies BuzzFeed and Vice have announced salary reductions to avoid layoffs.
BDG has taken a more accelerated approach. The method isn't one that's unfamiliar to BDG, which has created headlines for a series of layoffs that it's instituted in the last year. In November, it cut at least 14 staffers after making a series of staggered layoffs affecting at least 17 staffers, as was first reported in Business Insider.
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