Media biz celebrates May Day by laying off lots of journalists [Updated]

Vox Media sold gaming site Polygon to Valnet, laying off "nearly all" of the site's staff in the process.

By Mary Kate Carr | May 1, 2025 | 4:25pm

Logo courtesy Vox Media

Aux News Vox Media

On a day known to many across the globe as International Workers’ Day, the media industry eliminated a bunch more jobs. Today it was announced that Vox Media sold Polygon, the popular gaming and entertainment site, to Valnet. According to a statement from the Vox Media Union, “nearly all” of the Polygon staff was laid off in the wake of the sale. The union is currently in bargaining for a new contract.

“We’re proud to have built Polygon into the gaming authority for both experts and casual fans alike, a publication that has informed and delighted tens of millions of gaming enthusiasts since its founding at Vox Media more than a decade ago,” Jim Bankoff, Vox Media’s co-founder, chair, and CEO said in a press release. “This transaction will enable us to focus our energies and investment resources in other priority areas of growth across our portfolio of iconic digital publications and audio/video programming, while enabling Valnet to grow their leadership and authority in the gaming information category.”

Most Popular

Polygon‘s new home, Valnet, owns more than 27 different brands covering a variety of topics; its gaming portfolio already includes Game Rant, TheGamer, Fextralife, OpenCritic, DualShockers, and HardcoreGamer. Valnet was recently the subject of a recent report from The Wrap that characterized the company as a digital sweatshop. “When Valnet takes over a fan site, the playbook is well established: employees are replaced by contractors, compensation plummets and writers who complain land on a blacklist that blocks them from working for Valnet sites altogether,” the report alleges. A former Collider contributor told The Wrap, “Everyone is underpaid, overworked and really pretty — extremely — exploited.”

Per the Vox Media Union, this “marks the fifth round of layoffs at Vox Media-owned brands in a sixth month period.” A previous round of layoffs in January affected seven percent of the company for a total of 130 employees. The New York Mag Union, also under the Vox Media umbrella, confirmed that it also had members impacted by the layoffs on Thursday.

The Polygon news also comes amid news that The Daily Dot, the long-running internet culture site, also experienced mass layoffs on Thursday. In a statement to The A.V. Club, editor-in-chief and CEO Nicholas White confirmed the site was “forced to lay off 15 people, most from Daily Dot editorial and the tech team” after an “unprecedented traffic decline” led to a steep decline in revenue. Describing the situation as “heartbreaking,” White says he “[hopes] to be able to go back to people and offer them their jobs back. In the meantime, we’ll do everything we possibly can to support them.”

The media industry contraction mirrors a similar situation in the entertainment industry, where jobs are reportedly drying up—NBCUniversal’s reality TV department is the latest to suffer a blow—and the ones that do exist lack the stability that was offered in the past. In an uncertain future with increasing job insecurity, we continue to face the loss of a lot of great work and talent.

This story has been updated to include a statement from The Daily Dot.