• by Melynda Fuller , August 3, 2018

Media company Upworthy/Good laid off 31 of its employees yesterday, as its EIC Liz Heron and president Eli Pariser both resigned. 

According to a report by TheWrap, Heron stated on Twitter that the departure of those employees amounted to nearly her entire team. That combined with moves made by management led to the resignations of Pariser and herself. 

Pariser stepped down as co-CEO a little over a year ago, when Upworthy merged with Good Worldwide, but had remained with the company as president. Last week, he resigned from the board, before tendering his final resignation yesterday.  

Max Schorr, CEO of GOOD Media Group, stated: “GOOD and Upworthy have always been a force for social change — working with our communities, world-changing brand partners ... Today, we had to make the hard decision to say goodbye to esteemed colleagues.”

Upworthy/Good’s officers are located in Los Angeles, but much of its staff worked remotely across the country. Staff members, among them reporters, editors, growth/data and product experts, were notified by phone. According to staff, no warnings led up to the job cuts. 

Ben Goldhirsh, the former Upworthy/Good CEO, who stepped down in November, told TheWrap: “Top line is that these cuts are part of a restructure to centralize leadership in Los Angeles. The operation needed to evolve. Nothing is shutting down.”

According to employees, the company had been profitable in recent months.  

Upworthy launched six years ago and quickly became known for its viral content and early forms of clickbait. Just a few years ago, the company launched the branded content studio Upworthy Collaborations. 

Good and Upworthy merged in early 2017 and renamed themselves Good Media Group in December 2017, launching a branding campaign and revamped website to introduce the new company.