WAMU abruptly shuts down DCist site, lays off 15 journalists

The D.C. NPR affiliate, WAMU, shut down its web-based local news site, the DCist, Friday morning and laid off 15 journalists.

This morning, @wamu885 management informed us they are laying off 15 vital people from our organization. These individuals are the lifeblood of our journalism. Our hearts are broken. We can’t believe we are losing our colleagues and friends.

— WeMakeWAMU is a union (@WeMakeWAMU) February 23, 2024

WAMU General Manager Erika Pulley-Hayes did this, she told Axios, to refocus on the core radio product.

“We’re making the choice to invest in what we’re better at than anyone else in this town, and that’s audio,” Pulley-Hayes said.

Thursday, DCist staffers received an email announcing an all-staff Zoom meeting to discuss a “new strategic framework.”

Thank you listeners and readers for your support. We don’t know what will happen at this morning’s meeting.

But we will keep the public informed. That’s what we do. ✊#WeMakeWAMU. #WeReadWAMU https://t.co/ni9S4iuqaO

— WeMakeWAMU is a union (@WeMakeWAMU) February 23, 2024

When visitors try to access the site, a message appears:

“Thank you for visiting and supporting DCist. Since 2018, it has been a part of WAMU 88.5, the Washington region’s public media and NPR member station. As of February 23, the site will no longer publish new content. Please visit WAMU.org for local news and programming.”

The DC Council called DCist’s shuttering “a true loss to our community.”

This is a true loss to our community.

Well-informed residents are essential to democracy, and good government is harder to accomplish without rigorous public examination and discussion of what we do. The absence of @dcist will be heartfelt by all of us. pic.twitter.com/wCWL9VP2W2

— Council of DC (@councilofdc) February 23, 2024

Former reporter and editor at WAMU and DCist Martin Austermühle said the decision was the result of “a failure of leadership,” more than anything else.

Now that the news is out that @dcist is dead and 15 great people will lose their jobs, some truths. No one at @dcist/@wamu885 was ignorant of the tough realities of media. But this is more a failure of leadership than anything.

— Martin Austermühle (@maustermuhle) February 23, 2024

This comes six years after WAMU saved the DCist from a similar fate.

In 2018, WAMU was part of a group that bought and revived the DCist after it was shut down by its previous owner Joe Ricketts in 2017.

WAMU saved DCist in 2018, acquiring the journalists, website, and social media after the original owner shuttered everything without notice. Now WAMU — and @AmericanU — is doing the same.

— WeMakeWAMU is a union (@WeMakeWAMU) February 23, 2024

Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade and DNAinfo, shut down the DCist a week after the editorial staff voted to unionize with the Writers Guild of America. Many felt he did this in retaliation to unionization.

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