Another one bites the dust… Last week, it was announced that Pitchfork, one of the last standing outlets of music criticism, would be absorbed into GQ. “This decision was made after a careful evaluation of Pitchfork’s performance, and what we believe is the best path forward for the brand so that our coverage of music can continue to thrive within the company,” wrote Anna Wintour, chief content officer of the parent company Conde Nast, in a memo. This came with mass layoffs— all while she kept her signature sunglasses on.
Pitchfork had been an influential voice in music for over 25 years. Its reviews, in particular, were crucial in the current landscape of celebrity gazing and chasing the social media algorithm. As artists clamor to this week’s TikTok sensation, athlete-turned-podcaster or Twitch streamer, it was refreshing that one outlet served thoughtful music analysis. Pitchfork didn’t make a lot of friends with its polarizing reviews but behind the scenes, several artists have told me it’s the one site they actually respected.
The end of Pitchfork is symbolic of the larger decimation of media in real time. It’s become an everyday occurrence. The Los Angeles Times slashed over 20% of its newsroom. The Business Insider did a new round of layoffs following one last year. So did Time and National Geographic. The Washington Post encouraged voluntary buyouts last year. Even venerated brands like Sports Illustrated can’t survive. My social media timeline is flooded with announcements of unemployment and horror stories about unnecessarily cruel firing methods. And forcing writers to start a newsletter to pay the bills isn’t the answer.
In most cases, leadership points to business buzzwords like “restructuring” and “efficiency” as the reason for mass layoffs. In reality, this is often a euphemism for chasing larger profits. A cut in headcount is a nice signal to shareholders that a company is in the green, when in reality, there are larger financial problems elsewhere (See: executive compensation). The average journalist salary in New York City is $69k-$125k and freelance budgets have all but dried up, so clearly writers are not the problem.
These mass layoffs have forced people to come to the realization that journalism cannot survive on the kindness of billionaires, tech bros and venture capitalists. The LA Times, Washington Post and Time are all owned by billionaires who apparently started with the best of intentions but journalism and a higher stock price are not one and the same. It’s the age-old issue of art vs. commerce. And many of these masters of the universe simply get bored with their new toys. As Sarah Jones wrote in New York Magazine, “billionaires are journalism’s false saviors…Now altruism has worn thin. Plain business interests are taking over, and media workers are feeling the blow.”
Reporting, fact-checking and critical thinking is more important than ever. We’ve seen in real-time the negative ramifications of fake news, misinformation and relying on social media to be the authority on everything. Journalism is a necessity. Criticism is necessary. The basic foundations of society—culture, arts, politics, life—depend on it.