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The independent music and entertainment publisher Paste Magazine has agreed to acquire the feminist title Jezebel from G/O Media in an all-cash deal, according to Paste editor in chief and president Josh Jackson.
Paste financed the deal without raising outside capital, although the publisher wouldn’t share further financial specifics. Jezebel was not profitable, according to two sources familiar with its finances.
The acquisition comes two weeks after G/O Media, which houses an array of editorial titles including Deadspin, Kotaku and Quartz, announced that it was shutting Jezebel after it failed to find a buyer for the publisher.
“We came into this because we thought Jezebel was worth saving,” Jackson said. “We wanted to see it survive in a healthy, stable way and provide the support for Jezebel to do what it does best.”
The New York Times first reported the news of the acquisition.
Jezebel will resume publishing within the next few days, and Paste plans to rehire as many former staff as it can afford to, according to Jackson. It has already brought back one former employee, but Paste has not chosen an editor in chief for the brand.
The famously acerbic feminist publisher, which covered topics including abortion rights, celebrity and politics with a humorous bite, will return as a standalone website. Jezebel and Paste will link to each other and highlight content relevant to both audiences, but for the most part, Jezebel will retain its signature voice, style and subject matter, according to Jackson.
Paste operated out of Atlanta, with studios in the city and in New York, until the pandemic. Since then, it has functioned as an entirely remote organization. The publisher employs roughly seven full-time employees, eight part-time staff and works with a rotating cast of more than 70 freelance writers, according to Jackson.
Paste launched in 1998 and is now entirely digital. It generates all of its revenue through advertising—mostly through open-exchange programmatic—and is sporadically profitable. The publisher declined to share commercial specifics.
Its YouTube channel, which mostly features studio performances from musicians, has attracted nearly 600,000 subscribers and is the main source of its brand partnership revenue, according to Jackson.
