People Inc., home to brands including People and Entertainment Weekly, is the latest media company to announce job cuts. CEO Neil Vogel announced in an internal memo Thursday that the company is laying off 195 employees “across our offices.” The cuts represent about 6% of the company’s total workforce.
“The vast majority of those affected today are in our print and legacy web businesses, as we continue to evolve for a prosperous future,” Vogel said in the memo.
“The rapid changes in media are evident to us all, and require us to be constantly changing as well,” he added. Vogel said People Inc. had hired 320 new employees so far in 2026 and planned to continue making “meaningful investments” in 2027.
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People Inc.’s brands include People, EW, InStyle, Investopedia, Better Homes & Gardens, The Spruce, Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Martha Stewart, Byrdie, Real Simple, Southern Living, Allrecipes, MyRecipes, Serious Eats, EatingWell, Parents, Verywell and Mind Health, according to Variety.
Vogel recently discussed the company’s efforts to reduce its dependence on Google-driven web traffic. “The Google risk is out of the business,” Vogel told a Goldman Sachs investor conference in September. “It’s down to 20 percent of our just web audience, and we’ve built these really diverse audiences and really diverse revenue streams across some of the best brands in the world, and we’re a very strong and healthy business where we sit right now.”
Across its various titles, People has 11 million print subscribers and plans to introduce membership-based offerings such as People VIP and a club for Southern Living, Vogel said in September.
“We make more content than anybody in our space by magnitudes. It is all made by people. Now we use AI to help processes,” the CEO added.
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People Inc. was formerly known as IAC before rebranding in April. In a regulatory filing at the time, the company said it would undertake a restructuring that included staff reductions, with the goal of achieving $40 million in annual savings once the overhaul was complete.
In the second quarter of 2026, People Inc.’s revenue declined 2% to $416.7 million. Digital revenue rose 6% to $289.9 million, while print revenue fell 16% to $132.6 million. Total digital sessions during the quarter reached 1.89 billion, down 23% year over year.
The layoffs come shortly after People Inc. and MGM Resorts appear to have ended discussions about a potential deal. MGM said Wednesday that it had amended its existing voting agreement with People Inc. after the investor withdrew its previously announced proposal.