UK Media Platform Gal-Dem to Close After 8 Years

Gal-Dem, an insurgent culture and politics platform that posed an alternative to the stratified British media landscape, is to close, according to a statement on its website this morning (March 31). The publication, founded in 2015 by Liv Little, was celebrated for platforming underrepresented journalists offering politically nuanced arts commentary, personal essays, media analysis, and opinion on current affairs. As a counter-narrative to the media cycle, its purview was determined by writers and editors of color who identified as women or nonbinary people, some of whom became rare voices of dissent in the British media establishment.

The decision to close, the statement indicated, relates to financial difficulties stemming from both the pandemic and a harsh climate for independent media. “Keeping a small, independent media company that is reliant on partnerships afloat over the last three years has been increasingly challenging,” reads the statement, attributed to Gal-Dem staff. “Through a global pandemic, brand budget reductions and economic downturn, we have worked tirelessly to reconfigure how we operate and keep gal-dem going through it all. And while we’re passionate about our membership model, it’s been difficult to sustain the level of growth needed here to support our work in the long term.”

The statement highlighted other independent publications for readers to support in Gal-Dem’s absence.