Lena Dunham's feminist newsletter, which ran articles by Jennifer Lawrence and Michelle Obama, is reportedly shutting down
- Lena Dunham's feminist newsletter Lenny Letter and its website are shutting down, according to multiple reports.
- The newsletter had interviewed Hillary Clinton. It also ran articles by Jennifer Lawrence and Michelle Obama, as well as covering style, politics, and gender issues.
- The newsletter had grown to over 500,000 subscribers, but sources said it had struggled to secure ad revenue.
Lenny Letter, Lena Dunham's feminist newsletter which ran articles by Jennifer Lawrence and Michelle Obama, is reportedly shutting down.
Dunham, who founded the newsletter in 2015, intended for it "make the world better for women and the people who love them," according to the email the newsletter sent to new subscribers.
But reports in The New York Post and Digiday said that the newsletter and the website that spun out of it will shut down on Friday. They cited contributors to the newsletter who told them about the reported closure.
Lenny Letter's activity has notably slowed. The last email newsletter was sent on Tuesday.
The site's Twitter account also usually sends hourly tweets, but at time of publication had not posted anything since 4 p.m. Thursday.
The newsletter grew to over 500,000 subscribers, according to Digiday, but its growth on social media had slowed. Nearly half of subscribers were still opening the emails in July 2017, sources told the New York Post.
Sources said that the newsletter had always struggled to gain ad support. It signed a deal with Condé Nast to handle ads for the site in October. Condé Nast did not respond to requests for comment from the Post and Digiday.
Suggestions of the closure began earlier this week when freelance writers were notified by editors that they would receive "kill fees" (compensation for work not being published), the Post reported.
The newsletter is sent by email twice a week and covers topics including feminism, style, politics, health.
"I think our ideal audience is anyone who considers themselves to be a progressive feminist who wants to live an inspired life," Dunham told Business Insider in 2015.
"Our goal isn't for you to read it at lunch. Our goal is for you to have a relationship with it and talk to your friends about it."
As well as discussions of topics like birth control, anxiety, gender issues, and activism, the newsletter includes interviews with "powerful female figures who get us excited."
It published pieces with women like actress Gillian Jacobs, New York Times best-selling novelist Jessica Knoll, and feminist thinker and activist Gloria Steinem.
Jennifer Lawrence wrote for Lenny about the Hollywood gender pay gap, and the newsletter interviewed Hillary Clinton when she was campaigning in the 2016 presidential election.
Dunham, best known as the writer, star, and creator of HBO show "Girls," founded the newsletter with production partner Jenni Konner. It is unclear whether the sites' podcasts - "Women of the Hour" and "Lenny Says" - will continue.