Statement on Vox Media’s Decision to Sell Polygon and Lay Off Staff

NEW YORK, NY (May 2, 2025) – The following is a statement from the Writers Guild of America East on Vox Media’s decision to sell Polygon and lay off staff:

“With only a month left until the current union contract expires at Vox Media, the Company yesterday announced it sold Polygon and laid off the bargaining unit at the site.

“Polygon has long been a must-read destination for gaming and geek culture news, and its talented, award-winning journalists were an essential part of what has made Vox Media a profitable and top-tier online media company. It is hard to fathom management’s commitment to its workers and its readers when this marks the fifth round of layoffs in just the last six months.

“Vox Media Union members with the Writers Guild of America East have been in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement since February and management has thus far rejected our economic proposals, refused to offer meaningful counter proposals and, frankly, shown a lack of interest in reaching anything close to an acceptable deal.

“The Vox Media Union is ready and willing to fight to get a contract with reasonable economic gains, critical AI protections, much-needed layoff protections and increases in severance, protections from rising healthcare costs, a single bargaining unit that includes The Dodo, strong successorship language and additional common-sense workplace protections.

“Vox Media touts its progressive values and its “responsibility to build a better media industry” by amplifying historically excluded voices, but the only thing clear at the moment is that Vox Media and its CEO Jim Bankoff have taken extreme actions to weaken the bargaining unit. The union will not be intimidated by management’s short-sighted choice to fire workers, their self-defeating decision to gut Polygon or their refusal to take these negotiations seriously.

“We demand the company come to the table prepared to negotiate in good faith and with intentions to support the very workers who make Vox Media a successful and lucrative business.”

ABOUT THE WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA EAST
The Writers Guild of America East, AFL-CIO, is a labor union of more than 7,500 members working in film, television, news, podcasts and online media. The Guild negotiates and administers contracts that protect the creative and economic rights of its members; conducts programs, seminars and events on issues of interest to writers; and presents writers’ views to various bodies of government. For more information on the Writers Guild of America East, visit wgaeast.org.

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