WAMU/Washington Shutters DCist

• American University’s NPR affiliate WAMU/Washington has shut down its local news site DCist.com on Friday morning, immediately following an all-hands meeting where employees were informed that layoffs are imminent.

Staffers learned of the meeting Thursday evening from an ominous-sounding email from General Manager Erika Pulley-Hayes, announcing that on Friday morning WAMU offices would be closed, the station would air no local programming, and access to internal computer systems would be temporarily frozen as executives laid out a new strategic plan.

The Washington Post reports that Pulley-Hayes announced the closure of DCist during a 10-minute meeting, during which no questions were taken. She told staffers that the shift was part of a new strategy to focus more on audio products rather than the written journalism that WAMU had hoped to bolster when it acquired DCist in 2018. Echoing an increasingly prevalent malady adversely affecting the media industry, Pulley-Hayes cited a “ripple effect across media consumption habits” created by the pandemic, a declining advertising market and a difficult philanthropic climate.

Pulley-Hayes did not detail in the meeting how many staffers would be laid off, but she did speak to Axios, which later reported 15 staffers would be cut while 10 others added, mostly in audio-production roles. A news team that a year ago included 14 journalists — since downgraded to seven through unfilled vacancies — will now have only four reporters after Friday’s layoffs, current and former WAMU staffers told The Washington Post.

A visit to DCist.com now redirects to WAMU, with this message: “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.”