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PeopleTV, the television network of People magazine, is shutting down next month, The Post has learned.
Staffers at the entertainment unit, which is known for the show People, hosted by Kay Adams — as well as for its Academy Awards red carpet coverage — were told their fate on Tuesday.
A rep for parent company Dotdash Meredith confirmed the news, adding: “After a year and a half in a limited number of markets, People’s daily online and broadcast TV entertainment news show will air its final episode at the end of April.”
The spokeswoman continued: “We are turning our full attention to the evolution of People’s digital, video, and print future, including our successful programming like People Magazine Investigates, People Puzzler and Home Town Kickstart. We thank Executive Producer Rob Silverstein and the entire team for their passion and energy in putting the show on every day.”
The closure of PeopleTV, follows the announcement last month from Dotdash Meredith parent company IAC that it was shuttering the print editions of six glossies it acquired when it bought Meredith Corp. last year.
The Barry Diller-owned IAC said it would stop printing Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, EatingWell, Health, Parents and People en Español.
Although People’s print edition was spared, its editor in chief Dan Wakeford was not. Wakeford was replaced by former Real Simple editor in chief Liz Vaccariello.
The changes come after Diller’s IAC snapped up the People magazine publisher Meredith for $2.7 billion last year and combined it with its digital division Dotdash to form Dotdash Meredith.
Dotdash Meredith CEO Neil Vogel delivered the news of the cuts last month via a memo to staff, saying that the move would help turn the publications into digital-only brands.
Vogel also said the moves would result in about 200 job losses — which represents less than 5% of Dotdash Meredith’s total staff, a spokeswoman added. The company said the April issues of all six magazines would be their final print editions.
“We have said from the beginning, buying Meredith was about buying brands, not magazines or websites,” Vogel said last month. “It is not news to anyone that there has been a pronounced shift in readership and advertising from print to digital, and as a result, for a few important brands, print is no longer serving the brand’s core purpose.”
As for PeopleTV, the network, which was launched in 2016 by then-owner Time Inc., never gained much steam in the already-saturated celebrity news market.
The station appeared on streaming platforms like Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Tubi and Fubo, and it included shows from Meredith brands like InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, People and Real Simple, covering entertainment, fashion and food.
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