Pitchfork Conde Nast

Photo Credit: Pitchfork

Pitchfork is merging with fellow Conde Nast property GQ, leading to the layoff of staffers, including Pitchfork’s editor-in-chief.

Conde Nast will merge music publication Pitchfork with its fellow property, men’s magazine GQ, leading to the layoff of staffers at Pitchfork, including editor-in-chief Puja Patel. The changes were announced in a company memo by Conde Nast chief content officer and global editorial director of Vogue, Anna Wintour.

“Today we are evolving our Pitchfork team structure by bringing the team into the GQ organization. This decision was made after a careful evaluation of Pitchfork’s performance and what we believe is the best path forward for our brand so that our coverage of music can continue to thrive within the company,” writes Wintour.

“Both Pitchfork and GQ have unique and valuable ways that they approach music journalism, and we are exciting for the new possibilities together,” Wintour continues, explaining that with the organizational changes, “some of our Pitchfork colleagues will be leaving the company today.” Wintour also noted that Pitchfork staff members will be hearing “more about their reporting structure in meetings this week.”

Conde Nast has not confirmed how many staffers are being let go, but the list includes features editor Jill Mapes, who took to Twitter to announce the loss of her position: “I’ve referred to my job at Pitchfork as being on a ferris wheel at closing time, just waiting for them to yank me down. After nearly 8 years, 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.”

The latest changes follow Conde Nast CEO Roger Lynch’s announcement in November that the company was looking to layoff around 300 employees, or about 5% of the total workforce, in addition to taking other steps to cut costs.

Pitchfork was founded in 1996 by indie music aficionado Ryan Schreiber. Conde Nast purchased the digital music publication in 2015.