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The publisher of titles like Vogue and Vanity Fair announced in a note sent to employees on Tuesday that it would lay off 5 percent of its workforce — around 270 employees, primarily in its video division, Condé Nast Entertainment — following a restructuring.
Condé Nast Entertainment is best known for producing franchises such as Vogue’s 73 Questions and Architectural Digest’s celebrity home tours. Those videos primarily air on YouTube, but the company has faced increased competition from short-form video sites such as TikTok and YouTube Shorts. While Condé Nast’s short-form video channels have helped drive audience growth, the publisher has struggled to monetise the engagement.
”While we can’t control platform algorithms or how AI may change search traffic, we believe our long-term success will be determined by growing the many areas that we can control, including subscriptions and e-commerce, where we directly own the relationship with our audience,” Roger Lynch, Conde Nast’s chief executive, said in statement.
Lynch also said that in the coming months, Condé Nast would be introducing additional cost-reduction measures including in real estate.
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Seeing a decline in print advertising revenue, a number of publications have sought to diversify their revenue streams over the past decade, with titles such as GQ and Vogue investing in video content and launching membership programmes.
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Elle UK launched its first reader membership programme on Thursday, part of a broader initiative at Hearst UK to monetise its brands.
