Refinery29 a victim of ‘woke’ politics, not fashion, Vice critics say

Vice Media filed for bankruptcy this week, and some media watchers are particularly disappointed over the fall of Refinery29.

Brooklyn-based Vice had shelled out $400 million for the fashion and beauty blog in 2019 — nearly double the $225 million that Vice sold for in court on Monday — and at the time, media insiders said Refinery29 may have been worth it.

But under its new owner, Refinery29 moved away from covering fitness trends and beauty hacks in favor of posts that were more focused on social justice. 

After co-founder and editor-in-chief of 15 years Christine Barberich left in 2020 amid accusations she created a sexist and racist work environment, the publication became even more progressive.

“Refinery 29 chose the whims of their writers over the needs of their advertisers,” a person close to the company said. “Advertisers don’t want polarizing content — just look at Bud Light.”

The result? Refinery29 ran into the ground.

“The whole executive team spent three years being afraid of getting canceled so they sat back as writers ran amok,” the source adds. “They were afraid to be the one to say stop writing about BLM and start writing about crop tops.”

A recent survey of Refinery 29’s website shows the website homepage is devoted to racial issues like an article titled, “Not Feeling ‘America Enough’: The mental impact of cross-cultural adoption.” 

Other featured articles include pieces entitled, “Street vendor harassment on the rise” and “I’m Black, Queer & The Birth Of My Child Was Traumatic.”

Users have to scroll down further to reach the kind of content Refinery 29 focused on several years ago like summer fashion trends and the best skincare devices.

The fall of Refinery29 was emblematic of Vice’s larger problems: The company became so focused on pushing a political agenda, it lost sight of why people liked the website, sources told On The Money. 

“Refinery 29 was the only good asset Vice had,” a person close to the company said. “But they made it so woke they turned it into a bad business… they could not have done a worse job driving the asset into irrelevance.”