Condé Nast is merging Pitchfork, the digital music publication it bought in 2015, with men’s magazine GQ — a move that will result in layoffs at Pitchfork, including the exit of editor-in-chief Puja Patel.
Anna Wintour, Condé Nast’s chief content officer and global editorial director of Vogue, announced the changes in a memo to company staff Wednesday. Pitchfork, which has cultivated a brand geared around music criticism doling out spare praise, was founded in 1996 by indie-music fan Ryan Schreiber.
“Today we are evolving our Pitchfork team structure by bringing the team into the GQ organization. This decision was made after a careful evaluation of Pitchfork’s performance and what we believe is the best path forward for the brand so that our coverage of music can continue to thrive within the company,” Wintour wrote in the memo.
