When Jezebel shuttered, a number of reports pointed to the divisive nature of its reporting as a key factor in the closure.
Brand safety issues have consistently plagued the news media industry for the last decade, as advertisers have implemented keyword blocklists to prevent their ads from running alongside content they consider inappropriate.
Jezebel, which covers issues like reproductive rights and frequently skewers its ideological opponents, often ran afoul of these brand safety measures.
Parent company G/O Media struggled to convince advertisers to run media alongside its content, and sales staff reportedly requested to remove the Jezebel tagline—Sex. Celebrity. Politics. With Teeth—from the site. (It has since been removed.)
According to Jackson, Paste has no intention of defanging Jezebel to sell ads. Instead, the publisher intends to find brands whose aim is to reach the passionate Jezebel audience.
“Jez is going to do stories on abortion rights, and it’s going to commission whimsical illustrations of Disney penises,” Jackson said. “There is not going to be great ad-fill on those pages, and that is fine. We want advertisers who believe in the brand and the audience, and people are going to appreciate advertisers who support it.”
Paste has no immediate plans to tweak the commercial strategy of Jezebel, although it has yet to fully evaluate every potentiality, according to Jackson. The media company does plan to reintroduce events, which Jezebel used to host.
“Paste and Jezebel will help each other in being two independent places that are full of writing that comes from a place of passion and authenticity,” Jackson said. “We want the world to know that Jezebel is not dead.”
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