The left-wing, feminist misinformation site Jezebel was forced to shut down Thursday because no one wanted to buy it.
Tee hee.
Jezebel’s publisher, G/O Media, let it be known weeks ago that the site was on the auction block and did so via a desperate and sweaty social media post on Xwitter…
“If you’ve seen the news that Jezebel is up for sale, I want to say that this (now, very small) team is brilliant and hilarious and some of the most talented journalists I know,” Jezebel’s interim editor-in-chief Lauren Tousignant xweeted last month, “and we’re very much still working our asses off despite some less-than-ideal circumstances.”
Hopefully, that “very small team” of “brilliant and hilarious journalists” knows something about computer coding.
Because.
The Messenger reported in October that G/O Media had “been in talks with several media companies” to unload the failing company.
But.
It was announced Thursday that no one was interested in purchasing the 16-year-old toxic disinformation outlet and that the site will now be permanently shut down.
Click here.
“G/O Media has officially shut down feminist website Jezebel, as the media company is hit with a round of layoffs,” reported the Independent Thursday afternoon.
G/O CEO Jim Spanfeller confirmed that the feminist misinformation outlet will be “suspended” (i.e., shut down) permanently:
As of this week we are making the very, very difficult decision to suspend publication of Jezebel. Few decisions over the course of my career have been as excruciating, and I want to make clear this is in no way a reflection on the Jezebel editorial team. Unfortunately, our business model and the audiences we serve across our network did not align with Jezebel’s. And when that became clear, we undertook an expansive search for a new, perhaps better home that might ensure Jezebel a path forward.
Here’s my favorite part: “The company was reportedly unable to find a buyer for Jezebel, as Spanfeller noted that editorial director Lea Goldman met with ‘over two dozen potential buyers’ but ‘could not find Jez a new home.'”
Two dozen buyers turned them down. Two dozen!
But who would want to purchase a site that feels like it’s forever stuck in the Snark Wars of 2003 and engages in election denying? At least Jezebel’s sister site, The Onion, has changed since 2003 — I mean, it’s changed into something that’s no longer funny, but at least it’s changed. Jezebel felt tired the day it launched 16 years ago, like something reheated from George W. Bush’s first term — smug, never surprising, and easily forgotten. Until today, I can’t remember the last time I clicked over there, and for years I confused it with Wonkette. Is Wonkette still around?
Anyway, I don’t want to sound uncaring to the dozens of election-denying Jezebel staffers who just lost their jobs or to the 23 others at G/O laid off today — and who “have already been kicked off the company-wide Slack messaging service, as well as email” — so allow me to reflect our shared humanity, the same humanity they show for the working class, and send them here.
John Nolte’s debut novel Borrowed Time (Bombardier Books) is available today. You can read an exclusive excerpt here and a review of the novel here.