Feminist site Jezebel to be revived after sale

Feminist news site Jezebel, which was shut down earlier this month, has been sold to a new owner.

Paste Media, known for its music coverage, has taken on the brand and reportedly hopes to relaunch this week.

It marks the latest revival for a site that started in 2007 as part of the Gawker empire and in the interim has had several owners.

The latest, private equity owned G/O Media, had blamed "economic headwinds" when announcing the closure.

At the time, chief executive Jim Spanfeller said the company had spoken to more than two dozen potential buyers without success but that he still hoped a deal could happen.

"We have been working on the sale of Jezebel for months and are delighted that the site has found a new home," Mr Spanfeller said in a statement.

The demise of Jezebel after 16 years had drawn tributes and mourning from those who credited the blog with helping to develop the sharp, personal tone that came to characterise many new digital publications.

The New York Times first reported the sale.

Josh Jackson, the founding editor-in-chief of Paste and its president, told the newspaper that "the idea of there not being a Jezebel right now just didn't seem to make sense".

Terms of the deal for the brand - which does not currently have any staff - were not disclosed.

Paste also purchased Splinter, a political news site that G/O shut down in 2019.

The turmoil for Jezebel comes as changes in online advertising, where spending is increasingly going to tech giants such as Amazon, Google and Meta, have wreaked havoc on many media businesses, big and small.

Paste was founded in the Atlanta area more than two decades ago.

The magazine was acquired by Wolfgang, a music company in 2011, and is now entirely digital.

"We've gone through all the different changes in the media landscape and stayed independent and have survived and thought 'hey maybe we can do this with other sites as well',". Mr Jackson told the New York Times.