Pitchfork, once a cultural bastion of music criticism, will merge with men’s magazine GQ, resulting in layoffs within the online magazine, according to a memo from Anna Wintour, chief content officer at Condé Nast, its parent company.
“This decision was made after careful evaluation of Pitchfork’s performance and what we believe is the best path forward for the brand so that our music coverage can continue to thrive within the company,” Ms. Wintour wrote in her memo. It was issued to employees on Wednesday.
Among the merger’s casualties was Pooja Patel, the site’s editor-in-chief since 2018, who replaced Pitchfork founder Ryan Schreiber.
“Pitchfork and GQ both have unique and valuable ways of approaching music journalism, and we are excited about the new possibilities together,” Ms. Wintour said. “With these organizational changes, some of our colleagues at Pitchfork will leave the company today.”
A Condé Nast representative declined to say how many people were laid off.
Mr. Schreiber launched Pitchfork as a teenager in Minneapolis in 1996. The name was a reference to the tattoo worn by Tony Montana, Al Pacino’s character in the classic film “Scarface.”
In the coming years, Pitchfork established itself as a taste-making institution. A prolific publication that could make or break a release from an artist—known or unknown—with scathing insults or outsized praise, it became an alternative to Rolling Stone for an audience hungry for more indie flair.
For example: The outlet gave Sonic Youth’s 2000 album, “NYC Ghosts & Flowers,” a rating of zero out of 10.
“Now, finally, my generation has ‘metal machine music’ – an unfathomable album that will be heard on squash courts and open mic nights in the depths of hell,” Brent Di Crescenzo wrote at the time.
Or, in an enthusiastic review, the writing can veer into the abstract, as with the opening sentences of 9.7’s review of Arcade Fire’s album “Funeral,” which helped the band reach the mainstream.
“Our generation is awash in frustration, turmoil, dismay, and tragedy,” David Moore wrote. “Fear is all-pervasive in American society, but we nonetheless manage to build our defenses in subtle ways — we make fun of arbitrary color-coded ‘threat’ levels; we get our information from comedians and laugh at politicians.”
The site has had its critics over the years, with complaints that some of its reviews were unnecessarily bad or wrong.
In some cases, Pitchfork has chosen to do some work. Liz Phair’s self-titled album received a zero from critic Matt LeMay when it was released in 2003. Sixteen years later, Mr. LeMay referred to his review as “condescending and embarrassing.”
In 2021, Phair was one of many albums to get another look from Pitchfork – this time scoring a 6.
Condé Nast acquired Pitchfork in 2015. Fred Santarpia, Condé Nast’s chief digital officer at the time, said Pitchfork brought with it a “very passionate millennial male audience to our roster.”
With the advent of streaming music, social media, and podcasts, Pitchfork has lost some of the cultural cachet it had two decades ago. Like many media companies, Condé Nast, whose portfolio includes The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Vogue, has struggled to remain profitable in the face of advertising cuts.
In November, Condé Nast announced that it would lay off 5% of its workforce, or about 270 employees.