Blavity Media Group shutting down 21Ninety, Home & Texture brands

An internal memo blamed the decline in traffic on changes to search engines and social media platforms.

21Ninety and Home & Texture brand logos. Blavity Media Group.

Blavity Media Group (BMG) is shutting down its 21Ninety and Home & Texture brands as the digital media company struggles to drive traffic to its media sites, according to an internal memo I reviewed.

The memo blamed the decline in traffic on search engines like Google, which are now devouring online news publishers’ search traffic due to new AI tools, and on social media platforms that throttle external links to keep users on their apps.

The shuttering of 21Ninety and Home & Texture is a part of a broader restructuring at Blavity Media Group. Blavity News, BMG’s flagship platform, will continue to cover news that impacts Black audiences but aims to shift its focus to health and politics, according to leadership. Travel Noire and AfroTech were unaffected by the editorial shifts.

Several freelancers announced on social media that they had been laid off.

The shuttering of 21Ninety, a lifestyle brand for Black women launched in 2017 by Blavity CEO and co-founder Morgan DeBaun, and Home & Texture, the homeownership and home decor brand for Black audiences she launched in 2023, marks the latest in a troubling trend for Black-owned media companies struggling with digital headwinds.

Earlier this month, Black Enterprise reportedly laid off all of its freelancers. The Portland Skanner and the Richmond Free Press — two legacy Black newspapers — shut down earlier this year, citing financial challenges and digital disruption.

Blavity Media Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DeBaun responded to this story in a now-deleted post: “SEO traffic was huge for those two brands. Such a bummer. Our team did our best to fight the good fight and will continue to platform our stories in new ways.”

Stixx Matthews, who was laid off as a contract writer for Home & Texture, lamented the end of the homeownership platform as another loss for Black audiences seeking stories outside the mainstream.

“I’ve been laid off before, but this one stung a bit more,” Matthews said. “It feels like another reminder that voices from niche spaces in Black media and representation keep disappearing, and that points to a much bigger issue playing out across Black media.”

“Home & Texture filled a real gap in the market. In a landscape that often tries to make Black culture and Blackness feel singular and linear, Home & Texture existed to dismantle that idea,” Matthews continued.

“Wow, hearing we’ve just lost 21Ninety and Home & Texture broke my heart,” said Ah-Niyah Gold, a fashion and beauty publicist. “Our black spaces and places to tell our stories are becoming more and more limited. I hate to see it.”