Vox Considers Furloughing Roughly 100 Employees

Digital media company Vox which owns SBNation, New York Media, The Verge, and other brands, is discussing the idea of furloughing about 100 of its employees.

The company seeks to cut costs amid the coronavirus quarantines and is hoping to avoid layoffs. Vox plans to make an
announcement to its employees later this week.

According to a CNBC report citing anonymous sources, as the discussions are private, Vox executives are negotiating details with the Writers Guild of America, East, which represents about 350 people at the company. The number of people furloughed could rise or fall slightly depending on those negotiations, which are confidential, said the people.

The company is discussing three-month furloughs for employees and is focusing on employees whose coverage areas have diminished during coronavirus quarantines. This includes dining website Eater and SBNation, according to the sources.

Temporary three-month employee pay cuts aimed at the company’s highest earners are also being discussed, the people also said. Vox wants to make sure that health care is covered for furloughed employees, one of the sources noted.

CEO Jim Bankoff has stated, “I’ll state the obvious that the advertising market is experiencing a downturn unlike ever before. While at this point I can’t put an exact number on our own decline, I know that – just like nearly all other companies and publishers – we have already seen a significant impact in March and our business will continue to be deeply affected this quarter, next quarter and likely for the remainder of 2020. It’s important to emphasize that we expect our ad business to rebound eventually, but since the timing cannot be predicted, we need to plan with extra caution.”

Bankoff did point out that “the week of March 23 was the greatest week for new subscriptions since New York launched its digital subscription product in 2018.”