From this thread  which has been up for several hours already, so linking to Erik's comment about it here  in case anyone missed it. Also reproduced in full below:

Hey everyone, Erik, CEO of Chesscom here. This was a really hard decision. We had to let go of some really incredible people we've loved working with and who we know are still going to do tremendous things in chess. Then why did we 38 people go? We and everyone else in chess have seen some regression to the mean since the incredible chess boom last year, and we did make strategic decisions to scale back as some of the opportunities we were investing in didn't pan out and we ended up overstaffed on some teams. That said, chess is still doing well, as is Chesscom. That said, I do want to address some of the narrative here that I think is inaccurate. First off, this was not done in an effort to "focus on profitability". Chesscom has been profitable and reinvesting every quarter since 2010, and this was not done out of desperation to save money, nor to maximize profits. This was done to right-size our teams to the initiatives and opportunities. Secondly, while we did inform team members by email in the morning, all team members retained access to Slack, email, and other systems through the day as we personally met with team members to discuss their situation. We are happy that we have such an incredible team that we could trust everyone with access through this transition as they shared goodbyes, personal contact information, and other notes with their teams. There was no strategic decision to release any team members based on their location or compensation. We are very, very grateful for the contributions of the team members we had to let go, and they were incredibly gracious as they said their farewells. While we've done our best to lead with strong severance packages and support in this process, transitions are never easy. We wish them all the very best in their next ventures and are committed to supporting them as much as possible. Separately, we've also seen some concern expressed regarding the agreement with NIC and Everyman Chess to separate from them and negotiate a merger with Quality Chess. From our perspective, this is just a win for everyone involved, including the community. We weren't well positioned to be in the print publishing industry, and this move creates a new, healthy company with great people and leadership and supports more independent press and publishing in chess. We think it's great for everyone. Obviously these are just words, and what really matters is that we serve the community the best way we can by creating products, services, content, and events that we hope you will enjoy. (Oh, and if you ever want to know what it's really like on the inside of Chesscom, feel free to message literally anyone at the company and ask.)