Penske Media Corporation (PMC) is shutting down entertainment portal Variety Latino, launched in partnership with Univision in February of 2014.
Inside sources say the site’s staffers were notified and laid off last Friday, December 2.
Managing Editor Yoselín Acevedo, Deputy Editor Otilio Ramírez, National Sales Director Betsie Batista and reporter Eliana López are among the full-time employees who lost their jobs.
A great portion of the content producers were either freelance or contract workers. There is no confirmation on the exact number of people affected by the shutdown at this time, but it is estimated at about about a dozen.
A source says the decision to cease operations came as a surprise and that contract workers weren’t immediately notified by the company. They realized something was wrong when they couldn’t log in to the content management system to do their work on Saturday.
Penske Media has not responded to several requests for comment on the shutdown, but Univision today sent Media Moves the following statement:
“We reached a mutual decision with PMC to suspend Variety Latino operations as we broaden our entertainment coverage on Univision.com. Our relationship with PMC will continue as we explore events and special issues such as ‘The Power of Latinos.’”
The Variety Latino site, which focused on Spanish-language entertainment content and also has an English-language section, is currently still live. A couple of stories dated December 3 and 4 were pre-programmed.
No word yet on whether the site’s content will be archived within the Variety platform or if it will be permanently deleted.