Lenny Letter shuts down: Lena Dunham, Jenni Konner post farewell note to fans

It’s official: Lenny Letter, the three-year-old digital-media startup from Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, is dead.

Following reports Thursday that Lenny Letter would shut down Oct. 19, the co-founders and editorial and creative director Molly Elizalde confirmed the closure in a farewell message to readers.

“While there’s no one reason for our closure, this change allows for growth and a shift in perspectives — ours and yours,” the trio wrote in the note. “But can we ask one favor? Please, continue to push forward the voices that need a platform, the untold stories that deserve to be heard, the diversity that the publishing industry claims to value but has never mastered.”

Dunham, Konner and Elizalde also urged readers to vote in the November midterm elections. “There is nothing more critical to counteracting the daily devastation of the current regime than the midterm elections,” they wrote.

In a tweet Friday, Dunham — without directly addressing Lenny Letter’s demise — wrote, “Change is the only way we learn and the only way we stay in touch with our capacity for joy. I am celebrating every aspect of it today, even the ones that hurt (Literally: holes on the body. Figuratively: holes in the heart.)”

Dunham also tweeted, “Be prepared for a day of unmitigated nostalgia!”

Lenny Letter once reportedly had as many as 500,000 subscribers for its twice-weekly newsletter but readership had declined over the last year.

The end of Lenny Letter comes after Dunham and Konner ended their producing partnership in June, with the expiration of their joint overall deal with HBO. The duo had served as exec producers on HBO’s “Girls” as well as “Camping,” starring Jennifer Garner.

After launching in September 2015, Dunham and Konner cut a deal with Hearst to handle advertising and last year moved their ad deal over to Condé Nast. Lenny Letter was managed by CEO Benjamin Cooley, Konner’s ex-husband who had previously worked as a producer at Shine America at Jack Black’s Electric Dynamite.

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