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Jezebel

Website:

jezebel.com/
Type:

Feminist Website
Formation:

2007
Status:

Defunct (Shut Down in 2023)
Editor-in-Chief:

Laura Basset

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Jezebel was a left-wing feminist online media outlet. At its founding in 2007, Jezebel became a major cultural force in modern feminism with a mixture of content covering celebrity gossip, news, and political commentary. The outlet received praise for its confident and entertaining writing, but also faced consistent criticism for helping develop toxic elements of online culture.

In November 2023, Jezebel was closed by its parent company, H/O Media, due to a lack of profitability. The Guardian called the closure “the end of an era of feminism.” 1 According to the Guardian, Jezebel’s success has had a major influence on traditional women’s magazines like Glamour, Vogue, and Cosmopolitan, which have produced more political content, done less photo editing on models, and have hired more ethnically diverse staff. 2

History

Jezebel was founded by Anna Holmes in 2007. Earlier, Holmes was an editor at InStyle and a staff writer at Glamour, where she developed a disdain for traditional women’s magazine content. When Holmes was invited to develop an online women’s magazine for Gawker by founder Mark Denton, she conceived of a celebrity gossip forum with the tagline: “Celebrity. Sex. Fashion. Without airbrushing.” Eventually, Holmes decided to position the outlet to both criticize existing women’s magazines and approach current events from a modern feminist perspective. Holmes initially concealed the extent of the website’s feminism after her intentions received negative feedback from Gawker executives 3 4

The website was launched in 2007 as Jezebel, a name coined by a Gawker lawyer against the wishes of Holmes. On its first day, Jezebel offered $10,000 for photos of models on magazine covers before they were airbrushed. By the end of the year, Jezebel was generating 10 million monthly page views. 5

In July 2008, “Daily Show” creator Lizz Winstead interviewed Jezebel writers Tracie Egan and Moe Tkacik. Listeners perceived Egan and Tkacik, both of whom were intoxicated, to have made light of sexual harassment and rape. Holmes called the writers “f****** idiots” and nearly fired both in response to the backlash. However, Holmes also lamented the extreme degree of criticism the two received: “It was the beginning of my awareness of what a circular firing squad the feminist blogosphere could be … it was really intense.” 6 7

In 2010, Holmes left Jezebel and Jessica Coen became editor-in-chief. Coen somewhat softened Jezebel’s edge to access broader appeal. 8

In August 2010, Jezebel published a high-profile article criticizing other women’s magazines for using few Black models. 9

In September 2016, Gawker shut down, and the remnants of its assets, including Jezebel, were reformed as Gizmodo Media after its acquisition by Univision. 10 In April 2019, Gizmodo Media reformed as G/O Media after it was sold to Great Hill Partners. 11

Politics

Jezebel’s political coverage typically took a feminist, left-wing stance. According to the Guardian, Jezebel helped launch a modern feminist movement based on self-confidence and heightened criticism after a cultural dearth of feminism in the 1990s and early 2000s. It asserted, “Jezebel and its peer sites interrupted this misogynist turn, offering an invaluable alternative. They pioneered a voice-forward, irreverent and acerbic take on news, culture and women’s issues, advancing a tone and vocabulary that would have been unthinkable in print media, but which were the lingua franca of the internet.” 12

Jezebel promoted liberal-left views on abortion, identity politics, and more awareness of sexual harassment. 13 14

Closing

In November 2023, Jezebel’s parent company, G/O Media, announced that it was shutting down and laying off 23 staff. G/O’s memo stated: “Unfortunately, our business model and the audiences we serve across our network did not align with Jezebel’s.” Weeks prior to the shutdown, G/O asked Jezebel to remove its tagline, “Sex. Celebrity. Politics. With Teeth,” which was allegedly too controversial for many advertisers. 15 16

G/O claimed that it attempted to sell Jezebel to two dozen buyers, but was unable to find a suitable purchaser. 17

Many Jezebel staff lamented the timing of the closure before the 2024 elections; Jezebel was expecting to focus its reporting on abortion laws throughout the United States before the elections. 18

Jezebel is one of many similar media outlets to shut down over the past few years. Others include Jezebel’s former parent company, Gawker, as well as Buzzfeed News. Vice also declared bankruptcy, was acquired, and as of December 2023 was widely speculated to be in difficulty. 19 20 Similar feminist blogs also shut down in the preceding years, including xoJane and Feministing. 21

Criticism

Jezebel was criticized by traditional feminists for promoting content associated with female stereotypes, such as celebrity gossip and fashion critiques. 22

Jezebel founder Anna Holmes has admitted that Jezebel has worsened some norms in the modern media environment: “we contributed to a knee-jerk tendency in digital media (or people who are on digital media) to react to things in a performative way without taking everything into consideration.” 23 Similarly, the New York Times has attributed aspects of modern social media toxicity, such as a Twitter mobbing, to norms developed by Jezebel and its readers. 24

References

  1. Donegan, Moira. “The death of Jezebel is the end of an era of feminism. We’re worse off without it.” The Guardian. November 11, 2023. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/11/jezebel-shutting-down-feminism.
  2. Michael Smith, Jordan. “Ten years of Jezebel: the website that changed women’s media forever.” The Guardian. May 20, 2017. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/20/jezebel-website-changed-womens-media
  3. Michael Smith, Jordan. “Ten years of Jezebel: the website that changed women’s media forever.” The Guardian. May 20, 2017. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/20/jezebel-website-changed-womens-media.
  4. Smith, Ben. “We’re Watching the End of a Digital Media Age. It All Started with Jezebel.” The New York Times. May 3, 2023. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/opinion/jezebel-gawker-buzzfeed-ben-smith.html.
  5. Michael Smith, Jordan. “Ten years of Jezebel: the website that changed women’s media forever.” The Guardian. May 20, 2017. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/20/jezebel-website-changed-womens-media.
  6. “Party Grrlzz.” The New Republic. July 8, 2008. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://newrepublic.com/article/42813/party-grrlzz.
  7. Michael Smith, Jordan. “Ten years of Jezebel: the website that changed women’s media forever.” The Guardian. May 20, 2017. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/20/jezebel-website-changed-womens-media.
  8. Michael Smith, Jordan. “Ten years of Jezebel: the website that changed women’s media forever.” The Guardian. May 20, 2017. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/20/jezebel-website-changed-womens-media.
  9. Smith, Ben. “We’re Watching the End of a Digital Media Age. It All Started with Jezebel.” The New York Times. May 3, 2023. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/opinion/jezebel-gawker-buzzfeed-ben-smith.html.
  10. [1] Ingraham, Nathan. “Gawker Media has been renamed ‘Gizmodo Media Group’.” Engadget. September 21, 2016. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.engadget.com/2016-09-21-gawker-media-has-been-renamed-gizmodo-media-group.html.
  11. Ha, Anthony. “Gizmodo Media Group acquired by private equity firm Great Hills Partner.” TechCrunch. April 8, 2019. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/08/great-hill-partners-acquires-gizmodo/.
  12. Donegan, Moira. “The death of Jezebel is the end of an era of feminism. We’re worse off without it.” The Guardian. November 11, 2023. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/11/jezebel-shutting-down-feminism.
  13. “Politics.” Jezebel. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://jezebel.com/politics.
  14. Donegan, Moira. “The death of Jezebel is the end of an era of feminism. We’re worse off without it.” The Guardian. November 11, 2023. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/11/jezebel-shutting-down-feminism.
  15. Koebler, Jason. “Advertisers Don’t Want Sites Like Jezebel to Exist.” 404 Media. November 10, 2023. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.404media.co/advertisers-dont-want-sites-like-jezebel-to-exist/.
  16. Gabbatt, Adam. “Jezebel to shut down after 16 years as parent company lays off staff.” The Guardian. November 9, 2023. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/nov/09/jezebel-news-shut-down-layoffs-go-media
  17. Gabbatt, Adam. “Jezebel to shut down after 16 years as parent company lays off staff.” The Guardian. November 9, 2023. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/nov/09/jezebel-news-shut-down-layoffs-go-media.
  18. Gabbatt, Adam. “Jezebel to shut down after 16 years as parent company lays off staff.” The Guardian. November 9, 2023. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/nov/09/jezebel-news-shut-down-layoffs-go-media.
  19. Smith, Ben. “We’re Watching the End of a Digital Media Age. It All Started with Jezebel.” The New York Times. May 3, 2023. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/opinion/jezebel-gawker-buzzfeed-ben-smith.html.
  20. Gabbatt, Adam. “Jezebel to shut down after 16 years as parent company lays off staff.” The Guardian. November 9, 2023. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/nov/09/jezebel-news-shut-down-layoffs-go-media.
  21. Donegan, Moira. “The death of Jezebel is the end of an era of feminism. We’re worse off without it.” The Guardian. November 11, 2023. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/11/jezebel-shutting-down-feminism.
  22. Michael Smith, Jordan. “Ten years of Jezebel: the website that changed women’s media forever.” The Guardian. May 20, 2017. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/20/jezebel-website-changed-womens-media
  23. Michael Smith, Jordan. “Ten years of Jezebel: the website that changed women’s media forever.” The Guardian. May 20, 2017. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/20/jezebel-website-changed-womens-media.
  24. Smith, Ben. “We’re Watching the End of a Digital Media Age. It All Started with Jezebel.” The New York Times. May 3, 2023. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/opinion/jezebel-gawker-buzzfeed-ben-smith.html.
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