Jezebel Pulls 100+ Stories From Site, Angering Ex-Staffers

Jezebel's archives are suddenly a little thinner, and its alumni are furious. The women-focused website has quietly yanked more than 100 old stories, many flagged by "404 error" messages and often featuring explicit language or headlines referencing abortion, according to a Washington Post review. Publisher William Sagan, whose Paste Magazine bought Jezebel in 2023, insists nothing has been officially "deleted," saying some pieces were simply moved to draft status for technical fixes or other editorial reasons, and that "thousands" of stories with explicit or abortion-related headlines remain.

Ex-staffers aren't buying it, calling the removals an attack on Jezebel's abortion coverage and a disrespect to their work. Media ethics experts, meanwhile, say unpublishing stories should be rare, transparent, and clearly explained—standards that critics argue Jezebel isn't meeting. "Jezebel was synonymous with unflinching, powerful abortion coverage that shaped the narrative" in the US, notes former senior writer Susan Rinkunas, who has since founded the Autonomy News outlet. "To see that the current owner is deleting or unpublishing stories about abortion is unconscionable and shows that he is not fit to run this website." Many missing articles can still be found via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.