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Jezebel (website)

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Jezebel is a US-based website featuring news and cultural commentary geared towards women. It was launched in 2007 by Gawker Media under the editorship of Anna Holmes as a feminist counterpoint to traditional women's magazines.

Jezebel
Available inEnglish
Owner
Founder(s)Anna Holmes[1]
EditorLauren Tousignant
URLjezebel.com
CommercialYes
LaunchedMay 21, 2007; 17 years ago (2007-05-21)
Current statusActive

After the breakup of Gawker Media, the site was purchased by Univision Communications and later acquired by G/O Media. The site stopped publishing on November 9, 2023, when parent company G/O Media laid off its staff.[2] It was then acquired by Paste on November 29, 2023[3] with the website officially relaunched on December 11, 2023.[4]

History

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Gawker Media

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Jezebel was launched on May 21, 2007, as the 14th Gawker Media blog.[5] According to founding editor Anna Holmes, who had previously worked at Glamour, Star,[1] and InStyle,[6] the site stemmed from the desire to better serve Gawker.com's female readers, who made up 70% of the site's readership at the time.[7]

At the site's launch, the editorial staff included Holmes; editor Moe Tkacik, a former Wall Street Journal reporter; and associate editor Jennifer Gerson, a former assistant to Elle editor-in-chief Roberta Myers.[5] Gerson left the site in May 2008 to become the Women's Editor for the Polo Ralph Lauren website;[8] Tkacik departed in August 2008 to work at Gawker.com, after briefly accepting and then rescinding a job offer from Radar.[9] Tkacik was subsequently laid off in a company-wide restructuring the following October.[10] Holmes left the site in June 2010;[11] Jessica Coen replaced her as editor-in-chief before stepping down in 2014.[12][13] Other staffers included Madeleine Davies, Kelly Faircloth, Hillary Crosley, Kate Dries and Callie Beusman.[14][15][16][17]

In December 2007, Jezebel reached ten million monthly views. Gawker's owner Nick Denton pointed to Jezebel's soaring popularity as one reason for a drop-off in traffic at the company's main site, Gawker.com, which fell from more than 11 million page views in October 2007 to about eight million in December.[18] Three years after its founding, Jezebel had surpassed the page traffic of its parent site.[19]

Univision and G/O Media

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Jezebel was one of six websites that was purchased by Univision Communications in their acquisition of Gawker Media in August 2016.[20] Univision sold the site in 2019 to a private-equity firm, which combined various former Gawker publications under the name of G/O Media.[21] According to The New York Times, feminist publications such as Jezebel have been particularly affected by financial turmoil within the news industry.[19]

In August 2021, Laura Bassett was announced as editor in chief.[22] In November 2021, Gawker reported on substantial staff resignations at Jezebel over the course of 2021, comprising around 75% of staff. The resignations were reportedly related to a "hostile work environment" created by G/O's management and the new deputy editorial director Lea Goldman.[23]

In August 2023, Laura Bassett stepped down as editor in chief, claiming G/O had mistreated her staff.[24]

In October 2023, it was reported that G/O Media wanted to sell Jezebel.[25] On November 9, 2023, G/O Media suspended the publication of Jezebel and laid off 23 editorial staffers as part of wider restructuring, having failed to find a buyer for the site.[2][26] G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller stated that their "business model and the audiences we serve across our network did not align with Jezebel's" and that advertisers had become "more cautious about spending".[27] Former staff, via a statement released by their union WGA East, responded that they were "devastated though hardly surprised at G/O Media and Jim Spanfeller's inability to run our website and their cruel decision to shutter it" and that the closure underscores the "fundamental flaws in the ad-supported media model".[27] 404 Media commented that Jezebel was difficult to monetize due to concerns around brand safety in advertising as "the advertising industry has singled out the issues the audience cares about most, like reproductive rights, as unsuitable to sell ads against, even though a ton of people want to read about them".[28] Lauren Tousignant, Jezebel's interim editor in chief, explained to 404 Media that in addition to concerns around adjacency in advertising "Jezebel was told not to put certain words like 'fucking' or 'suck' in a headline unless it was directly quoting someone".[28]

Paste magazine

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On November 29, 2023, it was announced that Jezebel and Splinter were acquired by Paste in an all-cash deal; this deal includes both the archive of content and the Jezebel brand.[3][29][30] Josh Jackson, a co-founder and the editor-in-chief of Paste, commented that they had not considered purchasing it until after learning of Jezebel's closure. The New York Times reported that Jezebel was sold without employees so Jackson "was aiming to first find an editor in chief for Jezebel and then hire writers".[3] Adweek stated "Paste plans to rehire as many former staff as it can afford to" and that the outlet "will resume publishing within the next few days".[31] This relaunch would have a standalone website distinct from Paste's website with Jezebel retaining "its signature voice, style and subject matter" but each outlet will link and highlight each other's content when "relevant to both audiences".[31]

It relaunched on December 11, 2023, under editor-in-chief Lauren Tousignant, who was interim editor of Jezebel's prior incarnation.[4][32]

Contents

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Founding editor Anna Holmes says she sought to create a counterpart to women's print magazines such as Vogue and Cosmopolitan.[1][6] According to Jordan Michael Smith, Holmes "hated [Glamour's] worship of luxury, the lack of racial diversity, and the shallowness of women’s publications generally".[6] The site was launched with the tagline "Celebrity. Sex. Fashion. Without airbrushing."[6] Emma Goldberg of The New York Times describes the site's hallmark as "feminist cultural criticism, with an edge".[19]

A regular feature called "Photoshop of Horrors" documents retouched photographs in fashion magazines.[1] On its first day of operation, Jezebel offered a $10,000 reward for the best example of a magazine cover photo prior to being retouched for publication.[19][33] The winning entry, announced in July 2007, was a photo of country singer Faith Hill from the cover of Redbook.[6][33] Jezebel pointed out 11 different ways the photo had been altered, including radically distorting Hill's left arm.[34][35]

A 2007 post by Tkacik said, "Jezebel is a blog for women that will attempt to take all the essentially meaningless but sweet stuff directed our way and give it a little more meaning, while taking more the serious stuff and making it more fun, or more personal, or at the very least the subject of our highly sophisticated brand of sex joke. Basically, we wanted to make the sort of women's magazine we'd want to read."[36] One of the site's guiding principles, according to Holmes, is to avoid saying "misogynist things about women's weight."[34]

Editors-in-chief

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Editor-in-Chief Editor From Editor To Ref.
Anna Holmes 2007 2010 [37]
Jessica Coen 2010 2014 [38][12]
Emma Carmichael 2014 2017 [12][39]
Koa Beck 2017 2018 [40][41]
Julianne Escobedo Shepherd 2018 2021 [41][42]
Laura Bassett 2021 2023 [22][24]
Lauren Tousignant 2023 present [4]

Media attention and influence

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Jezebel's format influenced other women-focused websites, including Slate magazine's Double X, xoJane, The Hairpin, and The Frisky.[6]

Media coverage of the Faith Hill photo controversy included discussion and interviews on NBC's Today show and in several other publications.[34][43][44] Redbook editor-in-chief Stacy Morrison said that their retouching of Hill's photo was in line with industry standards and that Redbook was investigating how the unretouched image had been released.[33]

A July 2008 article in the Ottawa Citizen included Jezebel as one of several sites launched as part of the "online estrogen revolution," referring to a comScore finding that community-based women's websites were tied with political sites as the Internet's fastest-growing category. The article also cited Ad Age's research showing that women's Internet use is outpacing men's.[45]

In 2010, Jezebel received widespread media coverage when it criticized The Daily Show for its treatment of women writers and correspondents.[1] As a result of this publicity, the site was parodied as "JoanOfSnark.com" on an episode of 30 Rock, "TGS Hates Women".[46] Former Gawker staff writer Emily Gould criticized the site in an essay for Slate, saying its pop-culture criticism and "righteously indignant rage" was simply "petty jealousy ... marketed as feminism".[1][47]

Kashmir Hill of Forbes has been critical of the blog on two occasions. In 2012, Jezebel faced criticism when it published screen shots of a video depicting a rape and some users threatened to boycott the site.[48] Later, in November 2012, Jezebel was criticized for publicizing the names of teenagers who posted racist tweets in response to Barack Obama's re-election.[49]

The website has been criticized at times for how it handles race issues, including its selection in July 2014 of a white woman as the new editor-in-chief over a black candidate who had been with the site since its founding.[50][51]

In 2014, Jezebel writers accused the company Gawker Media of failing to address a campaign of harassment against its staff and readers, which included rape-themed images and threats of violence. In the post, which was titled "We Have a Rape Gif Problem and Gawker Media Won't Do Anything About It" the site's staff wrote that "an individual or individuals has been using anonymous, untraceable burner accounts to post gifs of violent pornography in the discussion section of stories on Jezebel" for months.[52]

In 2014, Caitlin Dewey of The Washington Post criticized Jezebel for its article about Vogue's February issue,[53] which depicted a retouched photograph of actress Lena Dunham on its cover along with retouched images of her within. Dewey described it as a "feminist self-parody", stating that "[Editor-in-chief Jessica] Coen doesn't just object to the type of unrealistic, unhealthy Photoshopping that warps our collective perception of what constitutes a normal size and shape, but to alterations of any kind", which she believes "doesn't really further that cause" of combating distorted body image in advertising.[54]

Confusion has sometimes arisen over whether an article by Jezebel was satirical or not. In 2021, they posted an article asking why the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie did not feature notable female fighting character Chun-Li. Confused fans quickly pointed out that Chun-Li was from the Street Fighter franchise, which is entirely separate from the Mortal Kombat franchise. NME speculated that the article may have been satirizing fan reactions to Johnny Cage not being in the trailer. However, Jezebel later updated their article with a correction, showing that the article was not written in satire.[55]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Mascia, Jennifer (July 11, 2010). "A Web Site That's Not Afraid to Pick a Fight". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 8, 2023. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Gabbatt, Adam (November 9, 2023). "Jezebel to shut down after 16 years as parent company lays off staff". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on November 9, 2023. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Robertson, Katie (November 29, 2023). "Jezebel to Be Resurrected by Paste Magazine". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 29, 2023. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Stenberg, Mark (December 11, 2023). "Jezebel Relaunches Under New Ownership, Eyeing Direct Advertising". AdWeek. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  5. ^ a b Stephanie D. Smith, Irin Carmon. "Memo Pad." Women's Wear Daily, May 21, 2007.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Smith, Jordan Michael (May 20, 2017). "Ten years of Jezebel: the website that changed women's media forever". the Guardian. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  7. ^ "Interview: Anna Holmes". prweek.com. June 4, 2007. Archived from the original on February 28, 2019. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
  8. ^ Holmes, Anna."You Can Take the Girl Out of Jezebel, But You Can't Take The Jezebel Out of the Girl" Archived May 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Jezebel, May 5, 2005.
  9. ^ Holmes, Anna. "Announcements" Archived April 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Jezebel, July 23, 2008.
  10. ^ Koblin, John. "Denton Shuffles Deck: Hires Snyder as M.E. of Gawker; Moe Tkacik Let Go." The New York Observer, October 3, 2008.
  11. ^ Mullin, Benjamin; Diaz, Johnny; Holpuch, Amanda (November 10, 2023). "Jezebel Will Shut Down, Parent Company Announces". New York Times. Archived from the original on November 19, 2023. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
  12. ^ a b c Sterne, Peter (July 7, 2014). "Mixed emotions as Jezebel gets new editor". POLITICO Media. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  13. ^ Tanzer, Myles (May 22, 2014). "Sources: Jessica Coen Stepping Down As Jezebel Editor-In-Chief". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on June 10, 2024. Retrieved June 10, 2024.
  14. ^ "Jezebel, the Oral History: 'There Was This Riotous Sense of Fun'". November 17, 2023. Archived from the original on November 18, 2023. Retrieved June 10, 2024.
  15. ^ "Callie Beusman Joins the Cut As News Editor". New York Press Room. May 29, 2018. Archived from the original on June 10, 2024. Retrieved June 10, 2024.
  16. ^ Melero, Shannon (December 23, 2021). "The Asteroid Comes For Beloved Dinos Megan Reynolds And Kelly Faircloth". Jezebel. Archived from the original on June 10, 2024. Retrieved June 10, 2024.
  17. ^ Crosley Coker, Hillary (August 10, 2016). "Bye Jezebel Fam, It's Been Real". Jezebel. Archived from the original on August 16, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2024.
  18. ^ Salkin, Allen (January 13, 2008). "Has Gawker Jumped the Snark?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  19. ^ a b c d Goldberg, Emma (December 8, 2019). "A Farewell to Feministing and the Heyday of Feminist Blogging". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  20. ^ Calderone, Michael (August 18, 2016). "Gawker.com Ending Operations Next Week". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on February 28, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  21. ^ Hayes, Dade (April 8, 2019). "Univision Finalizes Sale Of Former Gawker Portfolio And The Onion To Private Equity Firm Great Hill Partners". Deadline. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  22. ^ a b "MG/O Media Announces New Editors In Chief Of AV Club, Gizmodo, Jezebel" (Press release). Cision. August 31, 2021. Archived from the original on September 14, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  23. ^ "Inside the Turmoil at Jezebel". Gawker. November 18, 2021. Archived from the original on November 18, 2021. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
  24. ^ a b Meier, Lily (August 22, 2023). "Unions Hit The Onion and Jezebel Publisher With Claims of 'Mismanagement'". The Messenger. Archived from the original on November 9, 2023. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
  25. ^ Flynn, Kerry (October 21, 2023). "Scoop: Feminist blogging site Jezebel up for sale". Axios. Archived from the original on November 19, 2023. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
  26. ^ Spangler, Todd (November 9, 2023). "Jezebel Shutting Down, Parent Company G/O Media Laying Off 23 Staffers". Variety. Archived from the original on November 9, 2023. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
  27. ^ a b "Trailblazing feminist blog Jezebel is shutting down has to shut down from a lack of buyers. The writers claim 'strategic and commercial ineptitude'". Fortune. November 9, 2023. Archived from the original on November 15, 2023. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
  28. ^ a b Koebler, Jason; Maiberg ·, Emanuel (November 10, 2023). "Advertisers Don't Want Sites Like Jezebel to Exist". 404 Media. Archived from the original on November 27, 2023. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
  29. ^ Amatulli, Jenna (November 29, 2023). "Paste Magazine buys Jezebel weeks after closure with aim to 'push boundaries'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on November 29, 2023. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
  30. ^ Spangler, Todd (November 29, 2023). "Jezebel, After Getting Shut Down, Acquired by Pop-Culture Publication Paste Magazine". Variety. Archived from the original on November 29, 2023. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
  31. ^ a b Stenberg, Mark (November 29, 2023). "Paste Magazine Acquires Jezebel From G/O Media". Adweek. Archived from the original on November 29, 2023. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
  32. ^ Tousignant, Lauren (December 11, 2023). "Hey. We're Back". Jezebel. Archived from the original on December 11, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  33. ^ a b c Smith, Stephanie D.; Carmon, Irin; Wicks, Amy (July 17, 2007). "Memo Pad". Women's Wear Daily. Los Angeles, California: Penske Media Corporation.
  34. ^ a b c Johnson, Steve (July 25, 2007). "Jezebel: A few words with the editor". The Chicago Tribune.
  35. ^ Tkacik, Moe (July 16, 2007). "The Annotated Guide to Making Faith Hill 'Hot'". Jezebel. Univision Communications. Archived from the original on July 18, 2009. Retrieved July 3, 2010.
  36. ^ "Jezebel Manifesto: The Five Great Lies of Women's Magazines" Archived January 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Jezebel, November 1, 2007.
  37. ^ Mullin, Benjamin (November 10, 2023). "Jezebel Will Shut Down, Parent Company Announces". New York Times. Archived from the original on November 19, 2023. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
  38. ^ Johnson, Eric (March 2, 2017). "Mashable's new editor, Jessica Coen, wants her writers thinking like Gawker". Vox. Archived from the original on December 11, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  39. ^ Landsbaum, Claire (June 16, 2017). "Editor-in-Chief of Jezebel Steps Down". The Cut. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  40. ^ Ember, Sydney (October 24, 2017). "Jezebel, Leading Voice on Feminist Issues, Names New Top Editor". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 24, 2017. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  41. ^ a b Arnold, Amanda (September 10, 2018). "Jezebel Is Getting a New Editor-in-Chief". The Cut. Archived from the original on October 8, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  42. ^ Tani, Maxwell; Cartwright, Lachlan (August 4, 2021). "Jezebel Editor Exits, the Latest in String of G/O Media Departures". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on December 11, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  43. ^ Armstrong, Jenice. "Not fair to Faith." Philadelphia Daily News, July 25, 2007.
  44. ^ Ives, Nat. "Keeping people from blowing their covers; How magazines protect exclusive content in age of web, celeb obsession." Advertising Age, October 1, 2007.
  45. ^ Harris, Misty. "The 'Online estrogen revolution.'" Ottawa Citizen, July 29, 2008.
  46. ^ Blake, Meredith (February 25, 2011). "'30 Rock' recap: Joan of snark". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 30, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
  47. ^ Gould, Emily (July 6, 2010). "Outrage World". Slate. Archived from the original on August 1, 2012. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  48. ^ Hill, Kashmir (February 10, 2012). "This Week In Horrible Journalism: Jezebel's Rape Photos". Forbes. Archived from the original on May 17, 2012. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
  49. ^ Hill, Kashmir (November 9, 2012). "Should Teenagers Have Racist Election Tweets In Their Google Results For Life? Jezebel Votes Yes". Forbes. Archived from the original on March 8, 2013. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  50. ^ Sterne, Peter, "Mixed emotions as Jezebel gets new editor Archived July 26, 2014, at the Wayback Machine", Capital, July 7, 2014
  51. ^ Luvvie, "Jezebel gets it wrong with new 'Editor' hire Archived July 11, 2014, at the Wayback Machine", The Grio, July 8, 2014
  52. ^ Mirkinson, Jack (August 11, 2014). "Jezebel calls out Gawker for failing to address violent 'rape GIF problem'". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on September 3, 2017. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  53. ^ Coen, Jessica (January 17, 2014). "Here Are the Unretouched Images From Lena Dunham's Vogue Shoot". Jezebel. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  54. ^ Dewey, Caitlin (January 17, 2014). "Jezebel falls into feminist self-parody in Lena Dunham Photoshop 'controversy'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  55. ^ ‘Mortal Kombat’ fans confused as Jezebel asks “Who forgot to invite Chun-Li?” Archived February 22, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, NME

Further reading

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