Parent company Condé Nast announced Wednesday that online music magazine Pitchfork, known for its daily music criticism and multi-day festivals in Chicago and Paris, will be folded into the glossy monthly magazine GQ.
Founded by a Minneapolis-area record store employee and headquartered in Chicago for most of its 28-year history before being acquired in 2015 by magazine publisher Condé Nast, a unit of Advance Publications, Pitchfork, originally a blog that evolved into a more Full Online had about 22 full-time employees at the time of the announcement, according to its homepage masthead.
Pitchfork employees learned of the planned restructuring and job cuts said to be part of the process during an all-employee meeting late Wednesday, the Washington Post reported, citing a female assistant writer who was said to have been laid off from their jobs.
Condé Nast chief content officer Anna Wintour noted in a memo to staff that Pitchfork editor-in-chief Pooja Patel, who previously held the same position at Spin magazine, has departed, according to entertainment trade magazine Variety.
The Hollywood Reporter published Wintour's memo in full.
GQ magazine, formerly known as Gentlemen's Quarterly, was founded in 1931 and has earned its reputation as a men's fashion magazine.
