• by Ray Schultz , November 14, 2024

Magazine publisher Dotdash Meredith will lay off 53 people -- 1.5% of its staff, Axios reported on Thursday.  

The cuts will mostly affect staffers working on print.  

“While we are incredibly proud of our print products and our subscriber bases are stable (or in some cases even growing), the print advertising business remains challenged,” said CEO Neil Vogel in a note to the staff, according to Axios. “Today’s actions are directly in response to this.” 

But Vogel added, “We are not closing any print magazines, nor do we anticipate doing so, and we will continue to invest in our print assets.”

A company spokesperson confirmed the report.

Dotdash Meredith's print revenue fell by 6% YoY to $199 million during the third quarter, even while digital jumped by 16% to $246 million, the publishers’ third consecutive quarter of digital growth.

Commenting on Dotdash Meredith sales in general during Q3, Joey Levin, CEO of parent IAC, said: “The election and politics took up most of the consumer’s attention in October (we don’t accept political ads), with some advertisers holding spend until the election passed, so growth will slow a bit in the fourth quarter. But we’ve already begun to see traffic and advertisers return, and we expect solid growth during November and December.”