Dotdash Meredith lays off 143 employees, citing changing media landscape
Digital media company Dotdash Meredith, home to dozens of editorial brands including People, Southern Living and Food & Wine, laid off 143 employees in a round of reductions Thursday morning, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The company confirmed the layoffs to ADWEEK. The reductions affect staff across multiple offices and come weeks before Dotdash Meredith is expected to announce its fourth-quarter 2024 results.
Neil Vogel, chief executive of Dotdash Meredith, addressed the reductions in a company-wide email.
“Today we are making workforce reductions that impact 143 people across multiple offices,” Vogel wrote. “Human resources and business leaders have scheduled one-on-one meetings this morning with those affected and we are committed to ensuring a smooth transition.
“The media landscape is changing rapidly and we must evolve with it. As we mentioned, we will significantly increase our investments in projects that help us connect directly with our audiences and with our advertisers, which we believe are our greatest opportunities. Today’s actions, although never easy, allow us to better align our investments with these objectives.
“In 2024, we grew our workforce by 170 employees by adding new skills and capabilities, and we plan to do the same in 2025. We are more confident and optimistic than ever in our brands, our people and our outlook.
Cuts follow Angi spin-off
The layoffs come just days after IAC, the publicly traded parent company of Dotdash Meredith, announced plans to spin off one of its portfolio companies, Angi.
IAC was created by media mogul Barry Diller in 1995. The media company frequently acquires companies, invests in them, and then spins them off as independent companies. Angi is its 10th spin-off of this type.
In November, IAC’s then-CEO Joey Levin first announced that the company was considering parting ways with Angi. If that were the case, Levin warned, the decision could result in downsizing the entire company in order to keep costs in line with the company’s reduced size.
“In the event of an Angi spin, we will be a smaller IAC, and our corporate costs will have to reflect that,” Levin said. “We will look at the costs of the business with the impact of Angi in mind.”
These cuts mark the latest in a grim series of cutbacks affecting the media industry. In recent months, Vox Media, Conde NastHuffPost and The Washington Post have all reduced their workforce.
Dotdash Meredith isn’t immune to the headwinds hitting the industry-wide media ecosystem, but it has downsized less than its peers in recent years. In November, 53 positions were eliminated.
The company has recorded three consecutive quarters of double-digit advertising growth, and last May he signed a licensing agreement with OpenAI this brings it at least $16 million in revenue each quarter.
