Jezebel to be brought ‘back to life’ after being acquired by Paste Magazine
By Oliver Darcy and Jon Passantino, CNN
(CNN) — Jezebel, the punchy feminist blog that was shuttered earlier this month, will be resurrected after the publication was sold to a new owner.Jezebel, the punchy feminist blog that was shuttered earlier this month, will be resurrected after the publication was sold to a new owner.
The digital media outlet Paste Magazine, which focuses on music and culture journalism, said Wednesday that it had acquired the outlet from G/O Media.
“We are honored to bring Jezebel back to life and excited to welcome the site into the Paste Magazine family,” Josh Jackson, editor-in-chief of Paste Magazine, said in a statement. “The acquisition means that the critical information and content that Jezebel readers have come to rely on will live on.”
Jackson declined to disclose the terms of the sale but told CNN that Paste acquired the site in an all-cash purchase in what he described as an “incredibly fast deal” finalized on Tuesday morning. He said the site would resume publishing “very soon.”
G/O Media, which previously owned Jezebel, shut down the site and laid off its entire staff earlier this month as it announced broader restructuring to grapple with a difficult economic environment.
At the time, Jim Spanfeller, chief executive of G/O Media, said it was a “very, very difficult decision” and that the move had only been taken after failing to find a buyer for the outlet.
But Spanfeller said at the time that he had not “given up” on finding a new home for Jezebel, which he described as having a “storied legacy as the website that changed women’s media forever.”
Jackson, however, said that “all the staff had been laid off prior to us even knowing it was in trouble.” He said he planned to make Jezebel profitable by focusing on the site’s distinctive content and after reducing expenses, allowing his entire staff to work remotely.
“The vast majority of our overhead is editorial, and great editorial pays for itself,” he said. “Jezebel has averaged more than three million visitors a month this year. I’m confident that we can provide the site with a stable home.”
A representative for Paste Magazine said that the company would begin a search for a new editor-in-chief for Jezebel immediately. “Most of the staffing decisions will come from that, but former Jezebel staffers will be the first people we talk to,” the representative added.
As part of the deal, Paste said it had also acquired the political news site Splinter, which was shuttered by G/O Media in 2019, and plans to relaunch it next year during the 2024 presential election campaign.
“Paste had a Politics section for several years, and I loved wading into those waters, even if it was a bit of an outlier for an entertainment and lifestyle publication,” Jackson said. “I can’t wait to relaunch Splinter and provide another home for great writing about politics.”
This story has been updated with additional context.
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