Refinery29’s co-founder and global editor in chief, Christene Barberich, is stepping down, WWD is reporting. Vice Media staffers were told in a memo today that it was Barberich’s decision to exit. The news comes after reports last week about a negative work environment for women of color at the company.
“It’s really time WE as a community hold these brands accountable. Enough is enough. I’m no longer being silent or nice about it,” former deputy director of news and politics Ashley Alese Edwards wrote in a Tweet. “You know what real ally-ship looks like? Paying your black employees fairly, having black women in top leadership positions & addressing the micro-aggressions your black employees deal with from management on a daily basis.”
Other former employees also took to Twitter to air their gripes with the women’s lifestyle site including former senior features writer, Ashley C. Ford, who posted that during her near-nine months with the site there was a “toxic company culture where white women’s egos ruled the near nonexistent editorial processes”
Barberich ackonwledged her departure on Instagram this morning with a statement: “I’d like to start by saying that I’ve read and taken in the raw and personal accounts of Black women and women of color regarding their experiences inside our company at Refinery29. And, what’s clear from these experiences, is that R29 has to change. We have to do better, and that starts with making room. And, so I will be stepping aside in my role at R29 to help diversify our leadership in editorial and ensure this brand and the people it touches can spark a new defining chapter. A chapter that demands a new voice—both for our team and our audience—one that can shape and guide the critical stories that have the real power to shift and disrupt our culture, helping to eliminate institutional barriers that separate us and hold our society back. We will begin the search for the next Global Editor-In-Chief of R29 immediately. It’s time for a new generation of leadership that’s truly reflective of the diversity of our audience with divergent points of view, one that builds and expands on our original mission to amplify and celebrate a wide range of voices, perspectives, and stories…stories that need and deserve to be told. That is still at the heart of this company and why its community has loved it so much for the past 15 years. Because they ARE Refinery29 today—and what it will become—which is even more important in this moment than what inspired us to create it in the first place.”
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Barberich will remain at the company while her replacement is searched. Vice chief executive officer Nancy Dubuc stressed that the search for her replacement will be an inclusive hiring process with a diverse slate of candidates.
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