Co-founders of theSkimm Danielle Weisberg, left, and Carly Zakin speaking at a New York event in 2017.
Photo:
Andrew Toth/Getty Images
TheSkimm, a news-curation company known primarily for its current-events newsletter, is laying off about 20% of its staff of about 130 employees, according to people familiar with the matter.
TheSkimm—founded in 2012 as a newsletter startup by former NBC News employees Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin—has expanded to include podcasts, short video series, and a premium paid news app aimed at millennial women. It raised about $30 million in venture capital from firms including Google Ventures, 21st Century Fox and RRE Ventures.
The founders told employees that they only intend to make one round of layoffs during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a person familiar with the matter. Employees from multiple sectors of the company were laid off, another person said.
Employees at theSkimm were informed of the layoffs during a brief Zoom call with Ms. Weisberg and Ms. Zakin Friday morning, the people said, then laid-off employees were told that their jobs were being eliminated individually in follow-up calls.
Laid-off employees are being paid a minimum of one month’s severance and health insurance through July, some of the people said.
While many media companies have been affected by the pandemic, virtually all digital-media companies have been hit especially hard by the sudden drop-off in digital advertising. The biggest venture-backed digital media startups—BuzzFeed Inc., Vox Media Inc. and Vice Media Group—have all announced some mix of cost-saving measures, including pay cuts and furloughs.
Earlier this week, Ms. Weisberg and Ms. Zakin told employees during a staff meeting that executives at TheSkimm would take pay cuts, a measure aimed at reducing expenses during the outbreak.
Write to Benjamin Mullin at Benjamin.Mullin@wsj.com
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