Journalists' Unions Condemn Cond Nast's Gutting of Teen Vogue

Published: Tuesday, November 4, 2025 at 5:04 pm

As praise poured in for Teen Vogue following Cond Nast's Monday announcement that the youth-focused magazine would be folded into Vogue.com and key staffers credited with driving the publication's incisive political coverage were being laid off, unions representing Cond Nast journalists condemned the decision to gut the award-winning magazine. The consolidation of the two brands "is clearly designed to blunt the award-winning magazines insightful journalism at a time when it is needed the most," said Cond United and its parent union, the NewsGuild of New York, in a statement. Cond Nast announced Monday that Teen Vogue's editor in chief, Versha Sharma, was stepping down. The company said the publication, which ceased its print edition in 2017 and became online-only, would remain a distinct editorial property, with its own identity and mission," but admirers of the magazine expressed doubt that it would continue its in-depth coverage of reproductive rights, racial justice, and progressive political candidates as the politics team was dissolved. "I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers on other sections, and today is my last day," said politics editor Lex McMenamin. "To my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue."The unions also said no reporters or editors would be explicitly covering politics any longer. Sharma helped push the 22-year-old publication toward political coverage with a focus on human rights and engaging young readers on issues like climate action and Israel's US-backed war in Gaza. "From interviewing [New York mayoral candidate] Zohran Mamdani on the campaign trail to catching up with Greta Thunberg fresh out of her detention in an Israeli prison to breaking down the lessons that Black Lives Matter taught protestors, Teen Vogue has been considered a platform for young progressives inside the glossy confines of Cond Nast," wrote Danya Issawi at The Cut. Recent coverage from the magazine included a dispatch from Esraa Abo Qamar, a young woman living in Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, about the Israel Defense Forces' destruction of schools there; an article linking the US government's support for Israel's starvation of people in Gaza to the Trump administration's cuts to federal food assistance; and Jewish protesters demanding that US companies divest from Israel. (@) The unions said six of its members, "most of whom are BIPOC women or trans," were being laid off, including McMenamin. They added that Cond Nast's announcement included no acknowledgment of "the coverage that has earned Teen Vogue massive readership and wide praise from across the journalism industry.""Gone are the incisive and artful depictions of young people from the Asian and Latina women photographers laid off today," said the unions. "Gone, from the lauded politics section, is the work that made possible the blockbuster cover of [billionaire CEO Elon Musk's daughter] Vivian Wilson, one of Cond Nast's top-performing stories of the year, coordinated by the singular trans staffer laid off today."The journalists added that the publisher's leadership "owes usand Teen Vogues readershipanswers" about the decision to slash the boundary-pushing magazine's staff. "We will get those answers. And we fight for our rights as workers with a collective bargaining agreement as we fight for the work we do, and the people we do it for."Emily Bloch, a journalist at the Philadelphia Inquirer and a former Teen Vogue staffer, said the consolidation of the magazine is likely "more than an absorption and clearly a full shift from the publications DNA," and noted that the decision was announced the day before New Yorkers head to the polls to vote for mayor in a nationally-watched, historic election in which Mamdani has been leading in polls."Laying off the entire politics team a day before the NYC election is heinous and a knife in the back to a brand that has solidified its importance for youth," said Bloch. "Devastating... Its been a force for youth culture and politics since [President Donald] Trumps first term. This is a major loss."

Full Story