MEL Magazine is folding, again.
MEL, which focuses on men’s culture through a hipster lens, has been owned by Recurrent Ventures since July of 2021. Today, Recurrent Ventures, which also owns media brands liked Field & Stream and Domino, laid off the entire staff, many of whom reported the layoffs on Twitter. A number of employees confirmed the layoffs to the Observer.
lol got laid off again. send nudes
— Miley đź« (@MilesKlee) July 22, 2022
In an emailed statement, Recurrent Ventures spokeswoman Cathy Hebert said the company decided to “pivot our editorial and acquisition focuses away from the Lifestyle vertical” which includes MEL.
“We love MEL and are very aware that the team has been through a lot over the last few years,” Hebert wrote. “However, we’ve spent more than a year implementing and strategizing a variety of different monetization channels that haven’t gained traction.”
Mel was founded in 2015, and originally ran on Medium until moving to its own site in 2018, partnering with the Dollar Shave Club. Dollar Shave Club halted publishing of the magazine in March of 2021.
in the meeting where everyone at MEL just got laid off there was a man with a reverse mohawk who looked exactly like he's in Alien Ant Farm and I had literally never seen him before in my life
— Magdalene J. Taylor (@magdajtaylor) July 22, 2022
Update: The story has been updated to include a statement from Recurrent Ventures.
