An unknown variety of Rolling Stone employees, together with a number of the storied publication’s most outstanding voices, had been laid off on Monday, Oliver Darcy reported.
The cuts come as dad or mum firm Penske Media Corp. is actively searching for methods to shrink headcount throughout its many properties. Nonetheless, they could even be the signal of a change in route below new CEO Julian Holguin, moderately than a employees discount, as Rolling Stone has additionally posted a number of new job listings.
In keeping with Darcy, among the many affected Rolling Stone staffers are government digital director Lisa Tozzi, chief tv critic Alan Sepinwall and duplicate chief Steven Pearl. As of this writing, none of them have commented publicly. Representatives for PMC didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from TheWrap.
In August, PMC proprietor and CEO Jay Penske shocked staff companywide when he introduced that, starting in Oct. all staff are required to work at the very least 4 days per week at one of many firm’s workplaces, or lose their jobs. Penske’s memo indicated the corporate is anticipating some attrition in consequence.
The mandate applies not simply to employees working for PMC, however to all publications and types, which incorporates Selection, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Deadline, the Golden Globes and South by Southwest.
The mandate is reportedly a supply of a lot confusion among the many firm’s publications, as many Penske-owned media properties have by no means required employees to work on web site in any respect. In actual fact, lots of them make use of individuals who stay nowhere close to Los Angeles, New York, Austin or Miami, the place PMC maintains workplaces.
Penske indicated in his announcement that the in-office requirement is expounded to company tradition and productiveness targets, and isn’t related to monetary or enterprise issues. The memo even steered outright that distant employees are much less dedicated to their job and fewer productive, an assertion a number of research since 2020 have discovered to be unfaithful. Hypothesis by exterior observers is that the transfer is extra about lowering headcount with out having to report layoffs.
If that’s the case, it could be producing the specified end result, as earlier Monday, NBC introduced it has employed reporter Rebecca Keegan away from THR.
