Regime Change At Vibe In Full Effect

There's a lot of stuff identified as rumor in this AdAge piece on firings at Vibe but here's the core news:
The new owners of Vibe magazine, who already alienated staff by firing six key staffers within hours of taking control, have just laid off 20 more employees from all departments.

Regime changes suck but this feels more like what happens when a private equity firm like Wicks Group takes over than the evil machinations of a new Editor-In-Chief.  There's plenty of time for that in the coming months!

However, I'm trying to think the best of Editor-In-Chief Danyel Smith because people I respect, like Adisa Banjoko and Jeff Chang, say good things about her.

Besides, I can't spend my whole life hating.

Update: Oliver Wang shares a few thoughts.

Comments

[citizen]

I like your take on all that.

[Clyde Smith]

Thanks. I mean, obviously someone has to decide who's leaving and it's going to be the new team that's coming in including Danyel. But an organization like Wicks Group is looking for a lot of growth and a big return on their investment. So they're going to want to move as fast as possible at this time and a radical house cleaning is to be expected at an accelerated pace.

In some ways, getting fired quickly can be the best thing. It puts doubt to an end and frees you up to move on. Those sticking around are going to be in the worst position because they don't know if there will be further rounds or how best to keep themselves in place, especially the old timers.

And that's an issue for the new team to deal with because whoever decided what, they'll have to stabilize things and build a new spirit at Vibe to pull off what they're hoping to pull off.