BDG Lays Off Staff, Consolidates Parenting and Lifestyle Portfolios

The media company Bustle Digital Group laid off nine staff—including the editors in chief of Romper and The Zoe Report—and consolidated its parenting and lifestyle publishers into centralized units on Monday, according to five people familiar with the matter and a memo obtained by ADWEEK. 

BDG founder and chief executive Bryan Goldberg confirmed the news. Another limited round of layoffs is expected to occur next week, which will likely affect the commercial team.

“We are not shutting anything down,” Goldberg said. “We are restructuring and cutting out management layers in order to centralize some of our operations.”

The retrenchment is the latest in a series of contractions BDG has undergone over the last two years. Since September 2022, the media company has closed or suspended operations at Mic, Gawker, Input and Fatherly and shed dozens of staff.

Reorganizing and regrouping

BDG divides its advertising business into two broad categories—luxury & fashion and consumer packaged goods (CPG) & parenting.

The company generates roughly 85% of its revenue from advertising, which has left it vulnerable to swings in the market. In 2023, it brought in between $136 million and $144 million in revenue, down 10% from the year before.

Though demand from fashion advertisers has remained strong, softness in the CPG and parenting categories has led its parenting and lifestyle portfolios to face a challenging commercial landscape. 

The layoffs on Monday affected publishers in those portfolios, including Bustle, Elite Daily and The Dad. Kathy Lee, the editor in chief of The Zoe Report, and Liz Angell, the editor in chief of Romper, were also let go. 

Under the new structure, the parenting titles Romper, Scary Mommy and The Dad will be combined into one editorial unit, which will be overseen by editor in chief Kate Auletta. 

Likewise, the staffs of the lifestyle titles Elite Daily and Bustle will be combined and overseen by senior vice president of editorial strategy Charlotte Owen.

As part of the reorganization, BDG has cleaned house at The Dad, a parenting publisher geared toward fathers. The brand will continue to produce social media content but will not have a dedicated staff. 

BDG originally acquired The Dad, Fatherly, Romper and Scary Mommy from Some Spider Studios in June 2021 for $150 million in stock.

Nylon pushes back print

Fashion publishers Nylon and W have faced fewer economic headwinds due to sustained advertiser demand.

But Nylon, which relaunched its glossy print publication in April, has pushed back the release of its next issue to 2025. It was originally slated to run in October.

The decision to delay the second issue of the year stems partly from commercial reasons, as BDG wants to secure a marquee sponsor for the publication, according to Goldberg. The next issue will also be a broadsheet rather than a glossy magazine to reduce costs and production time.

Four Nylon staffers also left BDG following a labor dispute related to the push to produce the April issue, according to three people familiar with the matter. 

“They don’t have money to sustain even a single full team,” said a person familiar with the matter, “so they are shuttering everything and combining everything they can.”