Earlier this month, Univision announced it was selling Gizmodo Media Group (a digital media company comprising former Gawker sites such as Gizmodo, Kotaku, Splinter, Jezebel, and The Root) as well as the Onion (including its eponymous site, The A.V. Club, Clickhole, and The Takeout) to a private equity firm, Great Hill Partners.
No further layoffs have been announced for the 233 unionized employees at the two properties. But workers and contributors are probably right to worry that some or all of the sites will see mass layoffs or closure as Green Hill seeks to strip the companies for their most profitable parts while burning the rest. This is the private equity business model, after all, and it would be naive to expect anything else.
But what if there was an alternative?...69 percent of Americans say yes: workers should have the right to purchase their workplaces before any other buyers when they are up for sale or slated to close. This includes absolute majorities of Democrats, Independents, and even Republicans. It also receives absolute majorities among all generations and racial groups. Even more astonishingly, only 10 percent of Americans say they oppose giving workers the right of first refusal to buy out their business.
Go to the GEO front page
Add new comment