The former editor of Madison magazine has suggested that publisher Bauer Media failed to do the right thing when it made her redundant after closing the magazine.
Bauer – formerly ACP Magazines before being sold to the German publishing giant last year – announced Madison’s closure in April.
In a column for today’s Sunday Telegraph, Lizzie Renkert said that having worked for the company for a decade, she had expected to be better treated – and that being cast aside was “like a sort of death”.
She wrote:
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“I have officially been unemployed for six weeks. This isn’t my choice. I was unceremoniously made redundant and suffered the ignominy of losing my prestigious editorship when the fashion magazine I worked on was closed.
“Although I understand the commercial realities of the world we’re living in today and that difficult decisions must be made, I had never prepared myself for redundancy because I was such an exemplary employee. I honestly didn’t think any company would ever choose to get rid of me because I naively believed hard work and always doing the right thing by the company would prevail. I was wrong.”
Renkert edited Madison from 2010 to 2013 after joining as deputy editor on 2004. She previously worked for rival publisher Pacific Magazines in a number of roles on Marie Claire.
Renkert wrote that her exit came despite sacrifices she made for Madison. She said: “I put my health at risk by never putting myself first – I didn’t have time to exercise, I barely had time to eat lunch at my desk. Some days, I struggled to make time to go to the bathroom. I was editing a fashion magazine, which was cut-throat and stressful. Constant budget cuts, never enough staff, pressure from management to do more with fewer and fewer resources, is exhausting. I miss my job and I miss my team, but I don’t miss that level of pressure.”
And she added: “When you pour your heart and soul into your work, as I always have, it feels like a sort of death when it comes to an end.
“Being cast aside by my long-term employer has done nothing good for my sense of self and there are days when Imposter Syndrome rears its ugly head and lets me believe I was a fraud and never actually deserved my success. But these moments of self-doubt are beginning to abate and I am slowly putting myself back together again.”
Bauer has closed Madison in preparation for the launch of Elle magazine later this year.
Later in the article, Renkert said: “being made redundant isn’t the death knell it felt like at the time. This redundancy has been the career equivalent of the divorce I went through seven years ago. You do come out the other side.”
At the time of posting Bauer had not responded to Mumbrella’s invitation to comment.
Madison said a final farewell to its readers a week ago with a last Facebook post.
