Early Monday morning, a rep for Buzzmedia sent Billboard.biz a statement on the layoffs that took place at Spin magazine on Friday, and also said that while the future of the magazine’s print edition is still being determined, it will not publish a November/December issue this year. It also plans to double the size of Spin’s editorial team.
On Friday, several staffers, including editor-in-chief Steve Kandell, managing editor Catherine Davis, associate editor Melissa Giannini and Spin.com news editor Devon Maloney were laid off, as well as a number of staff members in the photo and production departments. The move came just weeks after the 27-year-old brand was purchased by BuzzMedia — as first reported by Billboard.biz — on July 9.
The statement reads in full:
“As part of Buzzmedia’s acquisition of Spin, we have been evaluating our integration plan in conjunction with our efforts to enhance and grow Spin’s offerings and audience. As part of these integration efforts, we have made some formal changes to the Spin staff, which impact the Editor in Chief/Magazine, Steve Kandell; Managing Editor, Catherine Davis; and nine others.
“We are retaining a powerful Spin team of 25. Specifically, Charles Aaron, who leads editorial efforts across all of Spin, will continue in his role as Editorial Director. In the coming year, we will build upon this core staff by doubling the editorial team. This investment will enable us to continue enhancing Spin’s offerings, which includes making the SPIN archive, an incredibly important part of music history, much more accessible.
“Buzzmedia and Spin are committed to moving forward with print, but we are still determining exactly how print fits in with Spin’s multiple distribution points and growth initiatives. While we are early in this process, we have concluded that Spin’s print offering will change after the September/October issue and we will not publish a November/December issue. Spin will continue to be led by a strong staff with deep experience in both digital and print. We look forward to sharing what the print offering will be going forward.”
Spin is the most established of BuzzMedia’s music properties, which also include Stereogum, Idolator, Brooklyn Vegan, XLR8R, KimKardashian.com and others. Earlier this month BuzzMedia CEO Tyler Goldman said in a statement: “We believe there is a unique role for print and see it as another outlet for people to access content about their passion topics… In the longer term, we’re still defining how print fits in from a platform perspective.”
BuzzMedia Music editor-in-chief Jeff Leeds tweeted late on Sunday: “True fact: we are indeed planning to keep producing a print edition of @spinmagazine, though exact form is TBD. I’m not afraid of new ideas.”