Workers who spoke to Polygon reiterated that Comixology staff care deeply about the quality of the user experience, but felt like their hands were tied in making major decisions like the migration. The sudden change was received poorly by long-time Comixology users, who complained that the new app made it “harder to read, shop, and publish” on the platform. In 2022, Amazon migrated Comixology into the Kindle infrastructure, with a new app.

At the time, the service operated on both Amazon’s platform and independently. When Amazon acquired Comixology in 2014, it was the clear leader in the digital comics space. Layoffs span most departments and positions, workers said. A smaller number of people were laid off immediately on Wednesday, with more notified that they’d stay on until mid-summer or longer. The exact number of impacted Comixology workers is unclear, but workers who spoke to Polygon said a significant number of people working on the platform will be affected before the end of the year. One worker said they were unable to access severance information linked in the layoff emails due to the sheer number of people trying to access the system across Amazon.Īmazon declined to comment beyond its Jan. Workers immediately impacted by the layoffs began getting locked out of work accounts while they were still figuring out what was going on, some workers said.

Then groups of people were pulled into separate meetings, depending on whether they were being let go immediately, laid off in a few months, or cut further into the year. Current and former Comixology workers, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to press, told Polygon that staff received emails informing them of the layoffs. News of Comixology’s layoffs hit social media Wednesday Comixology program manager Scott McGovern confirmed via Twitter that he and “numerous” other staffers were affected. Workers across the company began receiving notice of layoffs on Wednesday, largely focused on the Amazon Stores division, which includes Comixology. The company announced in early January that it intended to eliminate 18,000 roles beginning on Jan. Amazon has cut a significant part of its Comixology staff as part of its mass wave of layoffs Wednesday.

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