The NewsGuild of New York is furious that Teen Vogue is laying off Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and transgender staffers.
Parent company Condé Nast on Monday announced that Teen Vogue would transition from a separate publication to being part of Vogue.com, billing it as “part of a broader push to expand the Vogue ecosystem.” The headcount reduction that came with the change irked the Guild, which noted the left-wing outlet was laying off minorities.
“The NewsGuild of New York and Condé United strongly condemn Condé Nast’s consolidation plans for Teen Vogue, a move that is clearly designed to blunt the award-winning magazine’s insightful journalism at a time when it is needed the most,” the Guild wrote.
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“Management plans to lay off six of our members, most of whom are BIPOC women or trans, including Teen Vogue’s Politics Editor — continuing the trend of layoffs at Condé disproportionately impacting marginalized employees,” the Guild continued. “Condé management said as a ‘dedicated pillar’ on Vogue, Teen Vogue will ‘focus its content on career development, cultural leadership and other issues that matter most to young people, according to the publication.’”
The union noted that Teen Vogue now has “no writers or editors explicitly covering politics,” and that the publication’s accolades were not mentioned in its announcement.
“Gone is the political-cultural criticism of the fashion and culture industries by the Black women writers laid off today. Gone are the incisive and artful depictions of young people from the Asian and Latina women photographers laid off today. Gone, from the lauded politics section, is the work that made possible the blockbuster cover of Vivian Wilson, one of Condé Nast’s top performing stories of the year, coordinated by the singular trans staffer laid off today,” the Guild said.
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“Nearly all of these staffers identify as LGBTQ. As of today, only one woman of color remains on the editorial staff at Teen Vogue,” the Guild continued. “Condé leadership owes us answers — and Teen Vogue’s readership. We will get those answers.”
Condé Nast did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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One impacted staffer who uses “they/them” pronouns, Lex McMenamin, took to liberal social media platform Bluesky to announce the news.
“I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day. certainly, more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue,” McMenamin wrote.
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