Refinery29 plans to lay off 40 employees

Digital fashion and lifestyle publication Refinery29 alerted its staff via email today that it plans to lay off 10 percent of its staff. The publication, aimed at millennial women, explained to staff that it expects to come up 5 percent short on its revenue target for this year and therefore needs to restructure. The layoffs will likely result in about 40 job losses.

Refinery29 expanded into Canada earlier this month, opening an outpost in Toronto with Carley Fortune brought in as an executive editor. The publication launched in New York in 2005 and is still currently based there.

Refinery29’s unique visitors have declined steadily since September 2016, when the publication reached 20.8 million views. According to comScore figures, the site reached 16 million views last month. At the end of last year, Refinery29 cut 34 staff members and had told its employees that industry challenges would continue. In addition to this, the publication and brought in a round of top hires at the time.

“These reductions, while difficult, were designed to enable R29 to achieve 2019 goals and successfully grow over the long-term,” a representative for Refinery29 told WWD.