Pitchfork, once a cultural bastion for music criticism, will merge with men's magazine GQ, leading to layoffs within the online publication, 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,” Wintour wrote in her memo, which was issued to staff on Wednesday.
Among the victims of the merger was Puja Patel, the site's editor-in-chief since 2018, who had replaced Pitchfork founder Ryan Schreiber.
“Both Pitchfork and GQ have unique and valuable ways of approaching music journalism,” Wintour said, “and we're excited about the new possibilities we have together. With these organizational changes, some of our Pitchfork colleagues will be leaving the company today.”
A Condé Nast representative declined to say how many people were laid off.
Schreiber launched Pitchfork as a Minneapolis teenager in 1996. The name was a reference to a tattoo worn by Tony Montana, Al Pacino's character in the classic film “Scarface.”
In the years that followed, Pitchfork established itself as a taste-making institution. A prolific publication that could make or break the release of an artist, known or not, with scathing put-downs or voluminous praise, it became an alternative to Rolling Stone for an audience eager for a more indie taste.
Case in point: The outlet gave Sonic Youth's 2000 album, “NYC Ghosts & Flowers,” a rating of zero out of 10.
“Now, finally, my generation has its 'Metal Machine Music,' an unfathomable album that will be heard on the squash courts and open mic nights of deepest hell,” Brent DiCrescenzo wrote at the time.
Or, in a favorable review, the writing could veer toward the abstract, as with the opening sentences of a 9.7 review of Arcade Fire's album “Funeral,” which helped the band break into the mainstream.
“Ours is a generation overwhelmed by frustration, unrest, fear and tragedy,” wrote David Moore. “Fear is completely pervasive in American society, but we still manage to build our defenses in subtle ways: we mock arbitrary, color-coded 'threat' levels; “We get our information from comedians and we laugh at politicians.”
The site has had critics over the years, with complaints that some of its reviews were unnecessarily bad or just plain wrong.
In some cases, Pitchfork has chosen to repeat them. Liz Phair's self-titled album received a zero from critic Matt LeMay when it came out in 2003. Sixteen years later, LeMay would refer to her review as “condescending and embarrassing.”
In 2021, Phair's album was one of several to receive another review from Pitchfork, this time with a 6.
Condé Nast acquired Pitchfork in 2015. Fred Santarpia, Condé Nast's chief digital officer at the time, said then that Pitchfork brought “a very passionate audience of millennial men to our roster.”
With the rise of music streaming, social media and podcasts, Pitchfork has lost some of the cultural prestige it possessed two decades ago. And 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 it would lay off 5 percent of its workforce, about 270 employees.
