Less than three weeks after the feminist US news site Jezebel was shuttered, news has emerged that the site has been acquired.
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Paste Magazine, a music and culture publication, had acquired Jezebel and was looking to relaunch the site as quickly as Wednesday.
Josh Jackson, a co-founder and the editor in chief of Paste, told the Times that losing Jezebel in the current climate “just didn’t seem to make sense” and he wanted “to bring all of the best things from all of the eras” to the resurrected website.
“I want them to push the boundaries,” Jackson said, adding that he believes there are advertisers who will “have the courage to go to where the audience is”.
He also called Jezebel “the quintessential site for millennial women who grew up on this”.
“It’s a site that taught them what they could be. And I want the same for Gen Z, and to bring in Gen Z voices,” he said.
Jackson did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
Earlier this month, Jezebel’s parent company, G/O Media, announced that the site would shut down and the entire staff would be laid off.
“Unfortunately, our business model and the audiences we serve across our network did not align with Jezebel’s,” Jim Spanfeller, the chief executive of G/O Media, wrote in a memo sent to staff on 9 November.
Upon news of the recent sale, Spanfeller said in a statement to the Guardian: “We have been working on the sale of Jezebel for months and are delighted that it has found a new home.”
Launched in 2007, Jezebel was initially part of the Gawker ecosystem, carving out a space that offered a mix of incisive political commentary, celebrity gossip, cultural critiques and more. The site was purchased in 2019 by private equity firm Great Hill Partners alongside other digital media outposts, including Gizmodo, the Root, the AV Club and others, as part of the organization now known as G/O Media.
When Spanfeller announced Jezebel’s shuttering, shock waves reverberated across the internet as many wondered which feminist blogs were left. Jezebel’s closure followed the death of XOJane, Feministing and the Hairpin, leaving many online communities unmoored.
Notably, Jackson’s acquisition of Jezebel also included Splinter, a former political news website that was also shuttered by G/O Media back in 2019. He hopes to have the latter site up and running ahead of the 2024 election. On the renaissance of both of these sites, Jackson told the Times that he was looking for employees but had not hired anyone yet.
A former Jezebel staffer, who requested anonymity and spoke to Jackson in recent weeks, said they were “glad” to see Jezebel be “revived”.
“I think Paste is great, and Josh has really emphasized wanting to keep the spirit of Jezebel alive and trusting us with that, and I appreciate that,” the staffer added.
Founded by Jackson, Nick Purdy and Tim Regan-Porter, Paste Magazine saw its start in Atlanta, Georgia, in the late 90s. It functioned as a print publication in the early aughts before transitioning to become fully digital in 2010. In 2011, it was acquired by Wolfgang’s Vault, now known as Wolfgang’s.
Jenna Amatulli, deputy head of news at the Guardian US, is a former deputy editor at Jezebel.
