Sometimes life comes at you fast and hits you hard.

Last week DNAInfo and Gothamist reporters voted to unionize in New York City.

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They were very excited about their vote.

On Thursday the owner of DNAInfo and Gothamist shut them down.

It was a business decision.

The New York Times reported:

A week ago, reporters and editors in the combined newsroom of DNAinfo and Gothamist, two of New York City’s leading digital purveyors of local news, celebrated victory in their vote to join a union. On Thursday, they lost their jobs, as Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade who owned the sites, shut them down. At 5 p.m., a post by Mr. Ricketts went up on the sites announcing the decision. He praised them for reporting “tens of thousands of stories that have informed, impacted and inspired millions of people.” But he added, “DNAinfo is, at the end of the day, a business, and businesses need to be economically successful if they are to endure.” All other articles promptly vanished from the sites; an official at DNAinfo said they would be archived online.