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Four months ago, the streaming service ‘aggressively’ recruited a small army of journalists – primarily women and people of colour – to run its new fan site, Tudum. This week, it abruptly axed a significant portion of those hires.
After posting disastrous results for its March quarter – the loss of 200,000 subscribers after having only seen sustained growth since 2011 – Netflix has reportedly laid off several experienced writers working for its new editorial wing.
Launched just four months ago, Tudum (an onomatopoeic rendering of the signature sound that accompanies the logo when users open the app) was intended to be a kind of ‘entertainment magazine’ that would boost its original shows with top-quality editorial content.
This includes anything from fan-favourite-focused blogs and promotional articles on ‘the stories behind the stories’ to news about upcoming releases and interviews with the people who make them.
It was designed to be a one-stop-shop for all things Netflix, an ambitious venture that saw the streaming giant ‘aggressively’ recruit an impressive roster of journalists – primarily women and people of colour – to run it.
Intriguing Netflix editorial strategy to hire some of the best entertainment/culture minds in the biz, very specifically court a ton of non-white women with the offer of a truly life-changing amount of money, only to shitcan everyone mere months later… god damn
— Katie Way (@k80way) April 28, 2022
The platform did so by poaching them from other big-name sites like Condé Nast, Vulture, Teen Vogue, Bustle, and Vice with promises of authorial independence, exclusive networking opportunities, job security, diverse staff, and higher-than average wages. I’m talking hourly rates ranging from $60-$85 (which annualise to $124,800-$176,800).
This week, however, it abruptly sent a swathe of those hires packing, with no prior warning whatsoever and a pitiful offer of just a fortnight’s severance pay.
‘They went very out of their way to hire high level journalists of colour who have quite a bit of name recognition and a lot of experience and talent. In some ways, they were just buying clout to lend credibility to their gambit,’ one member of the team told NPR, mere hours after being let go.
‘We were courted pretty aggressively. They sold us on the most amazing thing that you could want as a culture or entertainment journalist. Something that seemed impossible anywhere else.’
