Los Angeles-area residents hoping to read the latest local reporting from LAist.com Thursday were instead greeted by a letter from the news site’s CEO, announcing he had shuttered the parent media company and all of its local news sites.

“I’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue publishing DNAinfo and Gothamist,” billionaire CEO Joe Ricketts wrote in the letter. “Reaching this decision wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t one I made lightly.”

Rickett’s news company DNAinfo purchased Gothamist, which ran local news sites in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington D.C., in March.

The demise of Gothamist and DNAinfo came just days after reporters and editors in the companies’ New York newsrooms voted to unionize, the New York Times reported.

On Thursday, more than a decade’s-worth of local journalism was unreachable on the Gothamist and DNAinfo sites, replaced by the five-paragraph letter from Ricketts.

Julia Wick, the now-former editor-in-chief at LAist, said she was eating lunch when she found out the site had been shut down and she was out of a job.

“We are shocked and deeply dismayed that our site has been shut down following a successful union campaign in our New York office,” she said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “The sudden closure of our site is a loss for the whole city, at a time when local journalism is more critical than ever. Our staff has always been small but extremely dedicated, and I’m deeply proud of the work we’ve done.”

Wick said someone in the company told her the LAist site, which first launched in June, 2004, had been backed up and writers should eventually be able to get copies of their work — a vital step as they seek new jobs.

LAist writers: I'm told a backup of the site was made & hopefully will be able to get writers copies of work. So sorry I don't know more yet — Julia Wick (@sherlyholmes) November 2, 2017

On Friday afternoon, LAist and the other Gothamist websites were back online and past articles were available to read.

Ok, so looks like the @Gothamist and @LAist archives have been restored: https://t.co/u1bPeQgAB1 brb while I PDF my portfolio! — Christine N. Ziemba (@christineziemba) November 3, 2017

Wick also said she and her Los Angeles team supported the New York staff’s decision to join the Writer’s Guild of America, East. Originally, she said, all five Gothamist sites planned to join WGA, but the Chicago newsroom dropped out, ending the collective effort.

In his letter, Ricketts, who founded and formerly ran TD Ameritrade, said “at the end of the day,” the local news groups were businesses, “and businesses need to be economically successful if they are to endure.”

In an email obtained by the L.A. Daily News, Ricketts said effective Friday, Nov. 3, eligible DNAinfo employees would be placed on paid administrative leave through Feb. 2, 2018 and “will receive (their) full salary and benefits through” that date. Staffers who found full-time work before that date would be paid for their unused vacation time and “be eligible for COBRA health insurance continuation,” the email states.

Wick said only two of the five staff members at LAist are eligible for the severance deal.

Thank you so much to everyone for the kind notes and tweets. We are all still sitting here in the office, reading them aloud… — Julia Wick (@sherlyholmes) November 2, 2017

The Writer’s Guild of America, East also weighed in with a statement, saying it was “no secret that threats were made” to the New York staffers as they organized for a union vote.

“The Guild will be looking at all of our potential areas of recourse and we will aggressively pursue our new members rights,” the statement says.

Our statement on Joe Rickett's decision to shut down DNAinfo and Gothamist. pic.twitter.com/28X21JQdgR — Writers Guild East (@WGAEast) November 2, 2017

News of LAist’s fate spread quickly on social media Thursday, with many lamenting the loss of a trusted and beloved local news source. Some former LAist writers shared their stories and many on Twitter blasted Ricketts for shuttering the sites.

WAIT IS LAIST GONE TOO??? pic.twitter.com/r92PxShsKu — kat calvin (@KatCalvinLA) November 2, 2017

I get 67% of my date night ideas from LAist. Genuinely sad to see them shuttered. — roxane gay (@rgay) November 2, 2017

I quit LAist in Feb. after THREE YEARS only to have billionaire Joe Ricketts delete ALL OF OUR CLIPS in 5 seconds. That's petty AF. — Juliet Bennett Rylah (@JBRylah) November 2, 2017

look my writing sucks but i would at least like to have some of it saved you ghoul — Prénom Carman (@CarmanTse) November 2, 2017

My @LAist story, in tweets. Pull up a chair. — Aura Bogado (@aurabogado) November 3, 2017

A billionaire had his feelings hurt, so Gawker is dead. A billionaire's workers asserted their personhood, so Gothamist/DNA Info is dead. — Judy Berman (@judyberman) November 2, 2017

Everyone at LAist is exceptionally smart & talented and I’m not just saying that because I got to work with them over the last couple weeks — Jennifer Swann (@jenn_swann) November 2, 2017

It breaks my heart that @Gothamist & @LAist are gone. — Amanda Lauren (@AmandaLauren) November 2, 2017

At a time when local news sources are shrinking, @LAist was a vital part of LA, Terrible for it to simply disappear https://t.co/RrTK1kj0Gr — Shelby Grad (@shelbygrad) November 2, 2017