On Friday, January 16, 2026, the Vox Media Union received news from management about more layoffs at the company: eight in-unit workers — not including a number of out-of-unit employees — some of whom were on parental and other types of company-approved leave.

Beyond this, the company announced that it will no longer have a centralized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI+) team, redistributing that work across the People team and leadership, and keeping Employee Resource Groups as simply Slack spaces without formal lead roles or any standalone budgets.

There is almost no further room to be shocked at these developments, as the company has laid off workers at an average of once per quarter in the last year, but we continue to be disgusted by the fact that leadership seems to have developed no real learning or commitment to workforce sustainability and retention. Those at the top remain safe in their positions while mercilessly cutting off those who work day in and day out (and then some) to make sure that essential, business-critical work is done.

Our indispensable colleagues are now in extra vulnerable positions, having to navigate workplace bureaucracy alongside a volatile job market and relentless threats to the integrity of journalism as a whole. This union is proud to have rallied in multiple rounds of contract bargaining to ensure more equitable worker rights and protections in the face of management incompetence. As always, we, along with our Guild reps, will continue to demand that members are treated fairly in the aftermath of layoffs.

This GoFundMe is being organized by a committee of members of the Vox Media Union. All funds raised will directly benefit the union members impacted by the January 16 layoffs, and all funds raised will be distributed in equal shares to those who opt in to receive funds. The organizers of this fund will be reaching out to those impacted by the layoffs in the coming days with details about how to sign up for their share of the funds.

The Vox Media Union layoff fund is being overseen by a committee of Vox Media Union members, including Victoria Song, Nadia Q. Ahmad, and Lauren Hoepner. The fund will operate transparently, with full accounting of all donations that are received and distributed.

Please follow the Vox Media Union on Instagram (@voxmediaunion) and Bluesky (@voxunion.bsky.social), and share this campaign widely. Every bit of support counts. Solidarity forever.

The Vox Media Union Committees

Writers Guild of America East, AFL-CIO