Barnes & Noble Axes Staff of B&N Teen Blog, and Other Freelancers

15.11.2019 Nate Hoffelder 4 Comments

When news broke in June that B&N had been acquired by the same hedge fund that owned Waterstones, it seemed likely that the first thing to go would be the failing Nook division. Alas, we guessed wrong; the blogging staff got cut first.

There are a multiple corroborating reports on Twitter that Barnes & Noble has let go the entire staff of its teen blog:

Getting a lot of Qs, and yes, the B&N Teen blog team has been let go (including me). I think the diverse and critical discussion we created around YA books really expanded the conversation and I'll miss contributing to it both as a writer and editor.

— Sona Charaipotra (she/her) (@sona_c) November 15, 2019

Didn't wanna be breaking anyone's news for them, but now that others are also sharing, to be clear:

1) "a lot of necks" = every single freelancer at B&N
2) Everyone at B&N Teen Blog was a freelancer

The site will still exist in some capacity. Don't know what.

— Dahlia Adler (@MissDahlELama) November 15, 2019

There’s no word yet from B&N on the number of people impacted by the job cuts. (I have queried B&N, and am awaiting a response.)

Searching for the terms "B&N blog" did not turn up any tweets mentioning other blogs at B&N (the SF&F blog, for example), so today’s cuts may have affected just the one blog.

Update: The SF&F blog staff was also let go:

All freelancers at B&N SFF Blog were informed today they'd no longer be contracting work and to invoice for outstanding work immediately. I've LOVED my time writing for @BNSciFi, and I'm bummed to see it come to an end. https://t.co/S0HfYM5TSg

— Aidan Moher (@adribbleofink) November 15, 2019

I am still looking for more info about this story, so if you hear something, please let me know.

image by Genista via Flickr