Molly Elizalde, the former editorial and creative director of Lenny Letter, said she had recently tried to help a female journalist place an essay, only to realize, “There’s a huge hole.”

To some degree, the sites were undone by their own popularity. Larger media organizations like The New York Times, The Washington Post and Condé Nast took notice of the rising generation of women journalists — and hired them. (The Times hired gender editors in 2017; The Washington Post has a gender columnist and a product called The Lily that is targeted at women.)

And with the rise of the #MeToo movement, the concerns of the scrappy upstarts became the stuff of prizewinning investigations conducted by major news outlets. At the same time, women’s glossies at the big magazine publishers absorbed elements of that voice, a sensibility that also informed television series like “Fleabag” and “Broad City.”

“A lot of these closures were less about any sort of failure and actually about our success,” Ms. Schrupp, the former Broadly editor, said. “These places became so successful at showing women’s experiences as full, real experiences that other companies had to keep up. But it’s sad that they’re the ones who suffer for it.”

Ms. Holmes noted the change that has taken place since the early days of Jezebel, when her use of the word “feminism” in an early memo “set off alarm bells” at Gawker Media, as did her posting of a story on menstruation.

Editors may have also adjusted their view of which stories are right for women’s publications. Stella Bugbee, the editor in chief of The Cut, the popular site that is part of New York Media, said web data shows that a reader interested in beauty products will also click on a political story. So The Cut runs “The Body Politic,” a column by Rebecca Traister, the author of “Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger,” alongside one by Daise Bedolla called “Why Is Your Skin So Good.”