World events, such as the digital revolution, followed shortly by the Great Recession and then the platforms’ algorithm changes in the late 2010s, all mark specific eras of loss felt industry wide. But 2020 could possibly be the hardest and most impactful period of all.

The global pandemic threw an unexpected wrench into the business plans of media companies large and small, and for the unlucky, caused them to shut their doors — or shut down their websites — completely.

Here is this year’s round-up of the publications we lost, or ones that nearly tumbled to their deaths, in 2020.

RIP to the dearly departed

California Sunday
After losing its main means of making money — a tour of live performances — due to the pandemic, then failing to retain funding from Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective in October, Pop-Up Magazine Productions was in a tight spot that caused the company to make cuts. Those cuts came in the form of shuttering its print arm, California Sunday magazine, and laying off 11 staff members from both that publication and Pop-Up Mag.

A print version of California Sunday had been distributed as an insert in the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle from October 2014 until May 2020, at which point it became digital only before shutting down completely this fall. Pop-Up Magazine is still producing video editions of its event-based magazine, as well as selling “issues in a box” that bring the event experience into audiences’ homes.

Man Repeller
The women’s style blog Man Repeller, which was first published in 2010 by Leandra Medine Cohen, shut down its site on October 19 following allegations of racism and classism against the founder and the publication. Medine Cohen told The Cut at the time that the site was shutting down because of “financial constraints” that kept it from being able to “sustain the business.”

The Outline
Bustle Digital Group’s tech-focused site, The Outline, was shut down in April just a year after it was acquired by the company. In addition to closing the site, 24 staffers were laid off from BDG. Despite ceasing publication, the company claims the site itself is not up for sale.

News publishers’ agency businesses
CNN’s short-form documentary production company Great Big Story bit the bullet in September this year, one day after signing a sponsorship deal from its largest advertiser — valued at more than $1 million. The five-year-old company was a place for creative …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron