Three major art publications post editorial openings

Three major art publications in New York are hiring at the same time — a rare and notable shift in an industry that has faced declining traffic, revenues and staffing.

Artnet News, Hyperallergic and Art News have each posted open editorial roles in recent days, signaling renewed hiring activity across the art media landscape.

At Artnet, the company is seeking a full-time “Art Market Reporter/Wet Paint Columnist,” a hybrid role that would combine deeply reported market coverage for its subscription-focused Artnet PRO platform with stewardship of the widely read Wet Paint gossip column.

The opening follows the departure of Annie Armstrong, who wrote Wet Paint and helped shape its mix of insider reporting and art-world dispatches, in December. Armstrong did not respond to Urgent Matter’s prior request for comment at the time of her exit.

The opening was posted by Artnet on LinkedIn last week, where at least 81 hopeful writers have clicked to apply, according to the job platform.

Artnet has also seen other movements in its reporting ranks. Brian Boucher, who had contributed to Artnet’s coverage as a long-term freelancer, left in November for a senior market writer position at Art News, he announced on social media at the time.

The job posting at Artnet comes after a turbulent stretch at the company. In 2024 and 2025, Artnet faced layoffs in its editorial department. More recently, Artnet was acquired by the investment firm Beowolff Capital in a deal that took the company private after years as a publicly traded firm in Germany.

Artnet has not publicly announced replacements for several editorial roles eliminated during prior layoffs. But its hiring for a new writer to helm Wet Paint suggests that the gossip column remains an important asset for the publication.

The independently-owned publication Hyperallergic, meanwhile, has posted two newsroom openings: a full-time staff reporter and an associate editor for its news desk, both based in Brooklyn.

Those postings come after Hrag Vartanian, its co-founder and editor-in-chief, announced he was stepping down in early October 2025 after 16 years in the role, according to his Instagram post. Hakim Bishara was named as his successor.

The staff reporter role calls for someone who can pitch news daily, write two articles per day on tight deadlines, attend protests and off-site events, and cover a wide range of topics — from museum controversies and labor movements to memes and archaeological discoveries.

The associate editor position carries managerial responsibilities, including commissioning and editing daily coverage and helping produce three to five stories per day through a mix of writing and editing.

It was not immediately clear whether the openings represent newly created positions or vacancies created by internal movement following the leadership change.

Art News is also looking for a staff reporter. While not listed as a market reporter, the job description seeks writers with market coverage experience. Like with Hyperallergic, it was not clear if that job listing was the result of a recent opening or a newly created position.

The publication is owned by Penske Media Corporation, the U.S. publishing and digital media giant behind magazine brands including Variety, Rolling Stone, Billboard and WWD. It acquired Art News, along with Art in America, in 2018 when it bought Art Media Holdings.

In late 2025, Penske conducted multiple rounds of layoffs that hit writers at Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Variety, Digital Music News reported. Those layoffs came as the corporation reportedly faces revenue pressures from summaries generated by artificial intelligence.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global outplacement and executive coaching firm that specializes in helping laid-off employees transition to new jobs, publishes data that tracks layoffs in industries, including news media.

In a report released in December, the firm found that there were 2,254 job cuts in 2025 across broadcast, digital and print news, a figure that was down 54% from the 4,902 cuts announced the prior year.

And a 2025 State of Local News report from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism found that the United States has lost nearly 3,500 newspapers and more than 270,000 newspaper jobs since 2005. In the past year alone, 136 newspapers closed, the majority of which were papers belonging to smaller chains and independent owners.

When cuts are made, arts and entertainment reporters are often the first to go. And while those figures relate to the journalism industry in the United States at large, arts publications face many of the same challenges experienced industry-wide.

And while the others are hiring, The Art Newspaper is embroiled in litigation. Last month, the paper’s corporate owner announced it launched new legal action against the publication’s “malicious” former owner, Inna Bazhenova and her business partner, Gleb Ibragimov, months after a Hong Kong court rejected the pair’s attempt to freeze shares tied to the sale of the outlet.

AMTD Group Inc., the multinational holding company that owns The Art Newspaper through its media subsidiaries, accused Bazhenova and Ibragimov of intimidation, malicious falsehood and breach of confidence after the 2023 sale of The Art Newspaper.

The company said the dispute stems from alleged threats to disclose information about the deal to journalists unless AMTD agreed to revised terms.

Disclosure: The author was previously employed by Artnet News and was laid off in 2025. He has no current professional affiliation with the publication. He has also contributed to The Art Newspaper.

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