BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti announced on Thursday that BuzzFeed News, the Pulitzer Prize-winning news division of BuzzFeed.com, will be shut down as part of a new round of layoffs that will reduce the company's workforce by around 15%.
In a memo to staff shared with The Verge, Peretti stated that while layoffs will occur across nearly every division, the company can no longer afford to sustain BuzzFeed News as a separate entity. Instead, the company will concentrate on HuffPost, which it acquired in 2020, as its news brand because it is "profitable with a loyal direct front page audience."
BuzzFeed and HuffPost will both offer "a number of select roles" to BuzzFeed News staff. Despite loving BuzzFeed News' work and mission, Peretti confessed to having "overinvested" in it and being slow to acknowledge that major platforms wouldn't provide the necessary distribution or financial support to sustain premium, free journalism tailored for social media.
BuzzFeed News won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021 for its reporting on China's detention of hundreds of thousands of Muslims.
Peretti cited numerous challenges that the company has faced in recent years, including the pandemic, a shrinking SPAC market, a technology recession, a struggling economy, a declining stock market, and shifting audience and platform trends, to explain the reason for the changes being made.
"Dealing with all of these obstacles simultaneously is why we've had to make tough choices to cut more jobs and reduce expenses," Peretti stated.
BuzzFeed has been grappling with platform changes for some time, and my colleague Mia Sato has written an excellent article about the company's recent struggles. The company has also been experimenting with AI-generated articles, such as quizzes and travel guides. In December, the company laid off 12% of its workforce.
"Hi all. I am writing to announce some difficult news. We are reducing our workforce by approximately 15% today across our Business, Content, Tech and Admin teams, and beginning the process of closing BuzzFeed News. Additionally, we are proposing headcount reductions in some international markets," Peretti's memo started.
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