SpinMedia, the digital celebrity and pop culture network that owns Vibe and the Spin, is expected to lay off 15 percent of its workforce, about 30 people, and cut loose about eight of its smaller websites.
Chief Executive Dale Strang told staffers Wednesday he planned to convert sites from owner-operated to partnerships — a move that will still keep them in the ad network but make them independent.
Strang wouldn’t identify the sites, although one of them appears to be absolutepunk.com.
Absolutepunk Senior Editor Drew Beringer tweeted, “Layoffs: the company has no money.”
Strang, who was a general manager at Vibe, which was acquired by SpinMedia in April, is the third person to hold the CEO job in less than a year. His succeeded Steve Hansen, who had been promoted to the gig last December.
It is the second round of layoffs in seven months. In February, SpinMedia unveiled a plan to slice the company’s workforce by 50 people — about 20 percent — to make it profitable by the fourth quarter.
But that plan, apparently, didn’t work.
Strang now said he hopes to have the company profitable by early next year.
SpinMedia, which was formerly known as Buzzmedia, owns a number of sites but also serves as an ad network selling inventory for about 40 Web outlets, some of which are even too small to show up in industry tracker comScore.
“The company has clearly pursued a reckless path over the past few years and they are paying a heavy price,” said Joe Mohen, a digital media executive.
“They confused high comScore audience numbers with financial results … and spread their editorial resources way too thin, had too many websites, low quality traffic and unengaged audiences,” he said.
Strang said such sites as Vibe, Spin, CeleBuzz, Idolator, The Frisky, BuzzNet and The Superficial have good traffic and will survive. He also said he plans to continue with plans to publish Vibe as a quarterly.
Among the investors are Silicon Valley firms Red Point, MC Partners, Sutter Hill, New Enterprises Associates and Focus Ventures.
Former basketball superstar Magic Johnson and billionaire Ron Burkle also received stock in the company when they sold Vibe Media, which they owned in a joint venture, to SpinMedia.