NEW YORK—Count Condé Nast Publications as the latest big media firm to apparently bend under political pressure from the Trump administration to seemingly silence voices that are politically critical of its policies.
Its capitulation to his pressure is different from that of major networks. They, or the corporate conglomerates that own them, paid Trump millions of dollars in hopes that in the future he’d leave them alone. One network fired late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, only to take him back after a mass revolt among viewers.
But in the close-knit world of New York media, where everyone pays close attention to everyone else’s business—including confrontations with Trump—Condé Nast’s shuttering of Teen Vogue and subsequent firing of its staff caused quite a stir.
It also comes in the context of a right-wing shift in top management in other New York-based media, notably CBS’s hiring of Bari Weiss as president—a former opinion columnist who has not hesitated to openly call for the end of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
And the conglomerates that own networks are cozying up to “deal maker” Trump in hopes he’ll let their own massive mergers and purchases go through. Those corporate capitalists want federal support and view bending to Trump’s will as a means to obtain it. Mergers line executives’ pockets with money while they dismiss or lay off workers.
At Condé Nast, management sparked turmoil by first closing Teen Vogue, which was more critical and outspoken about Trump than its larger parent, Vogue. It then merged the two into Vogue.com.
That was “a transparent attempt at political appeasement” of Trump, the protesting staffers, members of the Newspaper Guild of New York, declared. More than a dozen confronted Condé Nast HR chief Stan Duncan, demanding answers and reversals. He didn’t reply, but ordered them back to their desks, went into his office, and locked the door. Then Condé Nast went even further.
In the second of two rounds of layoffs, bosses fired six workers, decimating the Teen Vogue staff. One of the six was the Condé Nast Guild unit chair. The firm suspended five other workers for three days each without pay.
The Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank that had awarded Teen Vogue its 2025 Freedom of Speech and Expression awards, explained Condé Nast’s move was “evidence that corporate concentration eliminates innovative ideas and silences voices with less power.”
The institute went further in their statement by saying, “So many young people today feel ignored and disempowered in every facet of their lives—by policymakers who don’t represent their generation, by legacy media that overlooks their struggles, by online spaces that solely seek to profit from their attention. Teen Vogue’s work showed a different path: Journalism that isn’t just trustworthy and thought-provoking, but that listens to young people’s priorities.”
Anyone who was Black, indigenous, or a person of color was cut, including the just-hired Teen Vogue editor-in-chief, Versha Sharma, and Kaitlyn McNab, a Black woman who was the Culture editor at the publication.
Also fired was Alma Avalle, a News Guild of New York vice president who is transgender and an advocate of trans rights. Avalle is a digital producer for Bon Appétit. The firm also fired Jasper Lo of The New Yorker and Condé Nast Entertainment’s Ben Dewey, who have been active in the Guild. Five other workers were suspended without pay for three days.
As a result, The News Guild’s Condé Nast Union unit filed unfair labor practices charges against the company over the firings, plus many grievances covering the discipline of others. It also staged a protest outside the firm’s offices on Nov. 12.
Speakers there included New York Attorney General Letitia James. She took time out from her own legal hassles with Trump—who’s trying to jail her on trumped-up charges—to proclaim to Condé Nast, “I’ll see you in court.” The firings, the AG said, violate New York’s labor law.
The News Guild of New York called the firings “a flagrant breach” of its contract with Condé Nast and an “unprecedented violation of their federally protected rights as union members to participate in a collective action.” News Guild of New York President Susan DeCarava called the firings “one of the most extreme attempts at union-busting” it has seen in recent years.
“Management’s attempt at union-busting, using intimidation and grossly illegal tactics to try to suppress protected union activity, will not stand,” DeCarava told Jon Schleuss, president of the entire News Guild.
“The News Guild of New York has zero tolerance for bad bosses who harass, target, and disrespect our fellow Guild members. We represent nearly 6,000 media workers across the tri-state area, and we stand firmly in solidarity, ready to fight for the rights of our members illegally fired from their jobs at Condé,” DeCarava added, according to Schleuss.
Avalle told Truthout there’s a bigger picture than just union-busting. She combined the firings and shuttering of Teen Vogue, the firings of Kimmel and Colbert, Weiss’s takeover at CBS, and the payments to Trump and came up with a pattern.
“These things all feel like they’re happening at the same time and for similar issues, you know,” she said. Avalle said there is a “general right-wing shift in media” and that “it would be naive to say that that’s not a factor in what’s going on here.
“These journalists should be returned to their jobs immediately.”
At the rally protesting the firings, Lex McMenamin, former Politics editor at Teen Vogue, gave a speech connecting the folding of the publication to the larger crisis in journalism:
“Of the eight of us who were laid off last week, five were women of color, and two were the only remaining Black staffers on the editorial team at Teen Vogue. I was the only trans staffer. Many of you became aware of us [Teen Vogue] in 2016, under the first Trump administration, where people became aware of our willingness to speak truth to power, to fact check, and to resolutely clarify what is happening in the world, from Palestine to trans rights, campus organizing—you name it, and we were willing to talk about it.”
McMenamin noted that this kind of reporting is what upset those in power.
“The people in power right now are really unhappy when they are confronted with reality. But that is the purpose of journalism. And that’s why we believed in the diversity of our group, because the story isn’t told unless we’re all there to tell it. And media companies are en masse laying off queer and trans workers, Black workers, people of color from their teams, and eradicating the identity verticals that make it possible for us to even know what is happening in our communities. And yes, the [Trump administration] is openly encouraging all of this.”
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