Variety reports: Condé Nast is merging Pitchfork, the digital music publication it bought in 2015, with men’s magazine GQ. Is music a dude thing?
I don’t pretend to understand the movements of monoliths any more than I understand running a company by losing money. According to the NY Times, Condé Nast is part of the privately held Advance Publications and “in recent years was losing $100 million annually” while grossing under $2B.
The layoffs at Pitchfork have already started with the exit of editor-in-chief Puja Patel and features editor Jill Mapes who commented on Twitter/X, “after nearly 8 yrs, mass layoffs got me. glad we could spend that time trying to make it a less dude-ish place just for GQ to end up at the helm.”
People like to crap on Pitchfork just like some Pitchfork reviewers like to crap on musicians. I still enjoy gandering at their Best New Music picks and hope they continue…