Pitchfork, as soon as a cultural bastion for music criticism, can be merged with the boys’s journal GQ, resulting in layoffs throughout the on-line publication, based on a memo from Anna Wintour, the chief content material officer of Condé Nast, their dad or mum firm.
“This determination was made after a cautious analysis of Pitchfork’s efficiency, and what we consider is the most effective path ahead for the model in order that our protection of music can proceed to thrive throughout the firm,” Ms. Wintour wrote in her memo, which was issued to the workers on Wednesday.
Among the many casualties of the merger was Puja Patel, the location’s editor in chief since 2018, who had changed Pitchfork’s founder, Ryan Schreiber.
“Each Pitchfork and GQ have distinctive and useful ways in which they strategy music journalism,” Ms. Wintour mentioned, “and we’re excited for the brand new prospects collectively. With these organizational modifications, a few of our Pitchfork colleagues can be leaving the corporate immediately.”
The memo was posted on social media by a Semafor reporter on Wednesday and was later launched by Condé Nast. A consultant for Condé Nast declined to say how many individuals had been laid off.
Mr. Schreiber launched Pitchfork as a Minneapolis teenager in 1996. The title was a reference to a tattoo worn by Tony Montana, Al Pacino’s character within the basic movie “Scarface.”
Within the coming years, Pitchfork established itself as a taste-making establishment. A prolific publication that might make or break a launch from an artist — well-known or in any other case — with scathing put-downs or voluminous reward, it turned an alternative choice to Rolling Stone for an viewers hungry for a extra indie style.
An instance: The outlet gave Sonic Youth’s 2000 album, “NYC Ghosts & Flowers,” a zero out of 10 score.
“Now, lastly, my technology has its ‘Metallic Machine Music’ — an unfathomable album which can be heard within the squash courts and open mic nights of deepest hell,” Brent DiCrescenzo wrote at the time.
Or, in a rave evaluate, the writing might veer to the summary, as with the opening sentences to a 9.7 evaluate of the Arcade Fireplace album “Funeral,” which helped the band break via to the mainstream.
“Ours is a technology overwhelmed by frustration, unrest, dread, and tragedy,” David Moore wrote. “Worry is wholly pervasive in American society, however we handle nonetheless to construct our defenses in refined methods — we scoff at arbitrary, color-coded ‘menace’ ranges; we obtain our info from comedians and giggle at politicians.”
The positioning has had its critics through the years, with complaints that a few of its critiques had been unnecessarily imply or simply improper.
In some instances, Pitchfork has opted for do-overs. Liz Phair’s self-titled album obtained a zero from the critic Matt LeMay when it got here out in 2003. Sixteen years later, Mr. LeMay would check with his evaluate as “condescending and cringey.”
In 2021, Phair’s album was one in all a number of that received one other look from Pitchfork — this time getting a 6.
Condé Nast acquired Pitchfork in 2015. Fred Santarpia, Condé Nast’s chief digital officer on the time, mentioned then that Pitchfork introduced with it “a really passionate viewers of millennial males into our roster.”
With the rise of music streaming, social media and podcasts, Pitchfork has misplaced a few of the cultural cachet that it possessed 20 years in the past. And like many media firms, Condé Nast, whose portfolio contains The New Yorker, Vainness Truthful and Vogue, has struggled to stay worthwhile within the face of promoting cutbacks.
In November, Condé Nast introduced it could be shedding 5 % of its work pressure, about 270 workers.
