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Jezebel to be brought ‘back to life’ after being acquired by Paste Magazine

(CNN) — Jezebel, the punchy feminist blog that was shuttered earlier this month, will be resurrected after the publication was sold to a new owner.

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By
Oliver Darcy
, CNN
CNN — (CNN) — Jezebel, the punchy feminist blog that was shuttered earlier this month, will be resurrected after the publication was sold to a new owner.

The digital media outlet Paste Magazine, which focuses on music and culture journalism, said Wednesday that it had acquired the outlet from G/O Media.

“We are honored to bring Jezebel back to life and excited to welcome the site into the Paste Magazine family,” Josh Jackson, editor-in-chief of Paste Magazine, said in a statement. “The acquisition means that the critical information and content that Jezebel readers have come to rely on will live on.”

Jackson declined to disclose the terms of the deal but told CNN that Paste acquired the site in an all-cash purchase in what he described as an “incredibly fast deal” finalized on Tuesday morning.

G/O Media, which previously owned the site, shut down Jezebel and laid off its entire staff earlier this month as it announced broader restructuring to grapple with a difficult economic environment.

At the time, Jim Spanfeller, chief executive of G/O Media, said it was a “very, very difficult decision” and that the move had only been taken after failing to find a buyer for the outlet.

But Spanfeller said at the time that he had not “given up” on finding a new home for Jezebel, which he described as having a “storied legacy as the website that changed women’s media forever.”

A representative for Paste Magazine said that the company would begin a search for a new editor-in-chief for Jezebel immediately.

The representative added that “most of the staffing decisions will come from that, but former Jezebel staffers will be the first people we talk to.”

As part of the deal, Paste said it had also acquired the political news site Splinter, which was shuttered by G/O Media in 2019, and plans to relaunch it next year during the 2024 presential election campaign.

CNN’s Jon Passantino contributed to this report.

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