BuzzFeed fires 15% of workforce, shuts down BuzzFeed News

Posted:
in General Discussion
The controversial but high-profile BuzzFeed News is to be closed because of its parent company's financial problems, which CEO Jonah Peretti says he "could have managed better."




BuzzFeed itself, the media and entertainment company, will continue, but the 15% job losses will affect it too. Those redundancies will be "across our Business, Content, Tech and Admin teams," wrote Peretti in an email to staff who are staying.

The company's HR department is reaching out to affected employees immediately, but the BuffFeed News job losses are being negotiated with the News Guild. "While layoffs are occurring across nearly every division," said Peretti, "we've determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News."

BREAKING: BuzzFeed news is shutting down. @peretti's memo: pic.twitter.com/k3vGnHOkcl

-- Ben Mullin (@BenMullin)


"We've faced more challenges than I can count in the past few years," wrote Peretti, "[including] a pandemic, a fading SPAC market that yielded less capital, a tech recession, a tough economy, a declining stock market, a decelerating digital advertising market and ongoing audience and platform shifts."

"Dealing with all of these obstacles at once is part of why we've needed to make the difficult decisions to eliminate more jobs and reduce spending," he continued. "But I also want to be clear: I could have managed these changes better as the CEO of this company and our leadership team could have performed better despite these circumstances."

"Our job is to adapt, change, improve, and perform despite the challenges in the world. We can and will do better," he said. "The macro environment is tough, but we had the potential to generate much more revenue than we delivered over the past 12 months."

Peretti says that he and a new revenue leadership team will share more about the company's plans to "accelerate performance." He added that focus is on "reducing layers in [the] organization, increasing speed and effectiveness of pitches, streamlining our product mix, doubling down on creators, and beginning to bring Al
enhancements to every aspect of our sales process."

An unknown number of BuzzFeed and BuzzFeed News's redundancies will reportedly be offered positions on The Huffington Post, which Peretti co-founded.

The company's cutting its workforce come as major technology firms have similarly had mass layoffs, except for Apple -- in the main.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    williamhwilliamh Posts: 1,044member
    Was there a part of the company that reported actual news or is this about news like "19 Extremely Entitled Or Privileged Things Celebs Did And Tried To Pretend Were Normal"?  If it's the latter, then they still have 85% to go.
    edited April 2023 dewmeCluntBaby92watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 12
    mknelsonmknelson Posts: 1,140member
    williamh said:
    Was there a part of the company that reported actual news or is this about news like "19 Extremely Entitled Or Privileged Things Celebs Did And Tried To Pretend Were Normal"?  If it's the latter, then they still have 85% to go.
    Based on the lead image in the story… 85% to go sounds right.
    CluntBaby92watto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 12
    big kcbig kc Posts: 141member
    "BuzzFeed News" is (was) an oxymoron
    JP234docno42UncleTrickCluntBaby92watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 12
    docno42docno42 Posts: 3,759member
    <Insert Nelson Voice>
    Ha Ha!

    edited April 2023 williamhCluntBaby92watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 12
    waveparticlewaveparticle Posts: 1,497member
    williamh said:
    Was there a part of the company that reported actual news or is this about news like "19 Extremely Entitled Or Privileged Things Celebs Did And Tried To Pretend Were Normal"?  If it's the latter, then they still have 85% to go.
    You forgot freedom of speech. LOL
  • Reply 6 of 12
    williamhwilliamh Posts: 1,044member
    An unknown number of BuzzFeed and BuzzFeed News's redundancies will reportedly be offered positions on The Huffington Post, which Peretti co-founded.
    Wow, as if getting fired from Buzzfeed wasn't bad enough - to go from there to Huffington Post.  You'd really have to question your life choices when it has come down to this.
    williamlondonwatto_cobraJP234
  • Reply 7 of 12
    Wesley HilliardWesley Hilliard Posts: 242member, administrator, moderator, editor
    It's fun to beat up on Buzzfeed for their nonsense listicals, but the Buzzfeed news division was an award-winning news publication with accredited journalists. They reported more real news than some of the actual "news" publications people swear by.

    It's a loss to the journalism community seeing it shut down. And yes, that means the bullshit listicals are all that's left. Tragic.
    chutzpahthtbageljoeywatto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 12
    williamhwilliamh Posts: 1,044member
    It's fun to beat up on Buzzfeed for their nonsense listicals, but the Buzzfeed news division was an award-winning news publication with accredited journalists. They reported more real news than some of the actual "news" publications people swear by.

    It's a loss to the journalism community seeing it shut down. And yes, that means the bullshit listicals are all that's left. Tragic.
    I would be willing to accept that if there were some facts in the article and I don't expect you to do the author's job.  I'll accept that there may have been some merit to the thing based on what you wrote, and sadly, I never got to find out what it was before it was too late.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 12
    Maybe the journalists should have learned to code before the code learned to journalism.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 12
    red oakred oak Posts: 1,104member
    This was one of my favs.  So sad they are out of a job 

    https://www.buzzfeed.com/patricepeck/37-things-white-people-ruined-in-2017

    37 Things White People Need To Stop Ruining In 2018

    First of all, America.

  • Reply 11 of 12
    One less leftwing propaganda machine.
    CluntBaby92lkruppwatto_cobra
Sign In or Register to comment.