BuzzFeed News Shuts Down, Company Cuts 180 Employees!



BuzzFeed is shutting down BuzzFeed News for failing to make a profit, according to a memo sent by CEO Jonah Peretti to company employees on Thursday. The digital publisher is laying off 15% of its employees, or about 180 people, in BuzzFeed News and other divisions.

Words from CEO Peretti

Peretti notes, BuzzFeed will now concentrate its news work on one profitable news organization, such as HuffPost, which it acquired from Verizon in 2020. The company's flagship site, BuzzFeed.com, will remain in place.

“While layoffs are occurring in nearly every department, we have decided that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as an independent entity,” Peretti wrote. BuzzFeed News began broadcasting in 2012 under the then editor-in-chief Ben Smith. Peretti wrote in her note, “I made the decision to over-invest in BuzzFeed News because I love their work and mission. This slowed me down to accept that the major platforms would not provide the distribution or financial support needed to support world-class, free journalism designed specifically for social media.” According to Peretti, HuffPost is “a profitable brand with a highly engaged and loyal audience, less reliant on social platforms” compared to BuzzFeed News.

Peretti also wrote, “We will bring more innovation to customers in the form of creators, AI, and cultural moments that can only happen at BuzzFeed, Complex, HuffPost, Tasty, and First We Feast.” According to a BuzzFeed spokesperson, no job is being replaced by artificial intelligence. The company recently started using artificial intelligence to help create some content, including tests, and Peretti said the technology will become "part of our core business."

Alongside the shutdown of BuzzFeed News, Edgar Hernandez, chief revenue officer, and COO Christian Baesler are leaving the company. BuzzFeed president Marcela Martin will assume responsibility for all revenue functions with immediate effect. According to a BuzzFeed representative, discussions about the future of BuzzFeedNews.com are ongoing, but all of BuzzFeed News' work will be preserved and made available within the BuzzFeed network. The company is also working to ensure that all stories the BuzzFeed News team is currently working on are also published and promoted on BuzzFeed properties.

The representative added that BuzzFeed.com and HuffPost will offer roles to several BuzzFeed News journalists to match them with areas they want to expand coverage. Karolina Waclawiak, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News in June 2022, wrote in a tweet: “It has been an honor and a privilege to lead @BuzzFeedNews. I've spent 7+ years of my career working with some of the most talented and generous people in journalism. We changed the culture. We changed the laws. Hire them all.”

Waclawiak also shared part of a note to BuzzFeed News employees: “We have been successfully diversifying our revenues for the past 8 months – but that hasn't been enough to overcome the bigger financial challenges within the company and the monetization changes on social platforms like Facebook. I am so sorry for that. I wanted more for you than what is happening right now. You deserve better. There was no reason why this company hadn't built a business around BuzzFeed News much earlier.”

He continued: “While we believe this outcome is preventable for BuzzFeed News, it is an indication of a larger crisis facing journalism today. It is extremely worrying that the only way to have a sustainable news business seems to be to put journalism behind a paywall. This means that only people with the ability to pay will have access to high-quality information, while everyone else will have to parse misinformation that is widely shared on social platforms. The consequences will be dire.”