Bustle Digital Group hit by fresh round of layoffs

Bustle Digital Group just went through another round of layoffs that appears to have hit veterans of its books and entertainment news sections particularly hard.

The layoffs come three months after BDG Chief Executive Bryan Goldberg pulled the plug on a relaunch of Gawker.com, the snarky website he had purchased at a bankruptcy auction a year earlier for $1.35 million.

At least a dozen were cut Thursday, including some of the company’s longest-serving veterans.

Four staffers who each had five years of experience at the company tweeted that they had been laid off — celebrity and entertainment news editor Jamie Primeau, lifestyle editor Emma Lord, associate entertainment news editor Mallory Cara, and movies editor Sage Young.

Senior books editor Cristina Arreola, a veteran of 3 ¹/₂ years, also tweeted her farewell, as did lifestyle editor Tanya Ghahremani.

Permalancers Lucia Peters, Leah Marilla Thomas, Lindsay Denninger, Jessica Booth, Nicole Pomarico and Lauren Cox also tweeted farewells.

Goldberg, who co-founded and sold Bleacher Report before launching Bustle in 2013, has been rolling up some distressed assets in recent years, including Nylon, and Mic earlier this year.

A Bustle spokesman wouldn’t confirm the precise number of layoffs.

“BDG has recently hired dozens of writers and editors across our many properties — especially Nylon, Mic, Inverse and Input,” the spokesman said. “Bustle’s new editorial leadership will soon be announcing several marquee hires as we prepare for a major site relaunch in early 2020.”

But Bustle’s talk of a big relaunch drew even more fire in the Twittersphere.

“No bigger slap in the face than telling longtime employees you’re letting them go to hire ‘marquee writers for a site relaunch,’” tweeted Hillary Kelly.