Netflix laid off a contingent of its editorial staff just five months after launching its in-house publication Tudum.
When news broke of layoffs at the Netflix owned fan site Tudum last week responses tended to come in two parts first of course was that it sucked for the workers affected.
It have launched less than six months ago Tudum was envisioned as a home for bonus content related to popular Netflix titles like interviews with stars news about renewals and trailers and also bigger meatier stories that could contextualize shows and films.
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A former writer who lost their job last week compared Tudum to DVD special attributes and investments that other agencies have made into supplementary material. It kind of builds on an already existing culture of fandom around Netflix shows and is just something that acts as a companion piece.
But tudum has quickly become the latest example of Netflix failing to cultivate those fandoms. The agency has a history of shutting down shows of they don’t quickly reach internal goals and it seems to have treated tudum the same way cutting off a large chunk of its staff after it didn’t instantaneously produce a sizable return on investment.
Interviews with the recent and former employees suggest Netflix changed its mind about what it actually wanted from the slew of journalists it brought on. The staff was met with moving goalposts and a marketing department that felt unsympathetic to write and editor feedback. Netflix goals simply were unclear to everyone involved.
