Stop the Presses: Shawn McCreesh

The Media Apocalypse Condé Nast and other publishers stare into the abyss.

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ON JANUARY 23, Anna Wintour was in Paris, taking in the Armani Privé couture show from the front row at the Palais de Tokyo. Meanwhile, back at the ranch in lower Manhattan, her staff at Condé Nast had broken into open revolt, picketing on the West Side Highway outside the company’s headquarters at One World Trade. A series of union members riled up the crowd. “Be brave, be courageous, do some wild shit, because right now, those suits upstairs are at their meeting table, snickering about how all of you are weak,” said one. “Is that true? Are you weak?” “Nooooo!” the crowd bellowed back.

It is an especially miserable time to be employed there—and nearly everywhere else in media. Lately it has felt like much of the media industry has been put through a trash compactor: Time magazine had layoffs, and Sports Illustrated was essentially euthanized. The day of the Condé strike, the L.A. Times axed more than 20 percent of its newsroom; two days after the strike, Business Insider announced it was laying off 8 percent of its staff. The Washington Post just bought out 240 employees. It has dawned on journalists that journalism might all but cease to exist in the near future—and that whatever form it takes is being shaped by executives who have no idea how to create a sustainable business.