Logo of the 2014 BuzzFeed news website. The company announced it was reducing its workforce by 15% and terminating its news division.
Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
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Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
Logo of the 2014 BuzzFeed news website. The company announced it was reducing its workforce by 15% and terminating its news division.
Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
BuzzFeed is closing Pulitzer Prize Winner Jonah Peretti, CEO and co-founder of BuzzFeed, announced that the news division is part of a plan to reduce the workforce by 15% across the company.
“While layoffs are occurring in virtually every department, we have determined that the company cannot continue funding BuzzFeed News,” Peretti wrote in a memo shared Thursday via social media. as an independent organization.
Peretti said he made the decision to “overinvest in BuzzFeed News because I love their job and mission so much.” But this decision — plus a couple of difficult years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the technology downturn, and the decelerating digital advertising market — makes it impossible for the news department to provide further financial support, Mr. speak.
Going forward, BuzzFeed will “focus our reporting efforts on HuffPost, a profitable brand with a loyal, highly engaged audience and less reliance on social platforms,” Peretti said. . HuffPost and BuzzFeed Dot Com will open select roles to members of BuzzFeed News, he said.
BuzzFeed is just the latest media company to announce major layoffs. In recent weeks, NPR has cut about 100 people and announced plans to cut four podcasts. washington articles, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, eliminated Sunday magazine and some other newsroom jobs in January. Insiders also announced this week that lay off 10% employees due to reduced advertising revenue.
BuzzFeed said it reduced its New York real estate footprint last year, but will now also reduce its Los Angeles real estate, “from four buildings down to one, saving millions of dollars in savings. costs as well as reflect our current combined state of work.”
BuzzFeed News started in 2012 and has grown to over 100 journalists around the world. The news department has been a four-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. Its 2021 Pulitzer Prize is for the company’s international report on uncovering the Chinese government’s mass detention of Muslims.
