BuzzFeed CEO, Jonah Peretti, announced to the staff on Thursday that BuzzFeed News is shutting down. This shutdown is part of a new wave of layoffs at the company that will result in a 15% employee reduction overall.
In a memo to colleagues that the business shared with The Verge, Peretti wrote: “While layoffs are occurring across nearly every division, we’ve determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a standalone organization.”
The CEO admitted that he “made the decision to overinvest” in BuzzFeed News because he admired its work and mission. “This made me slow to accept that the big platforms wouldn’t provide the distribution or financial support required to support premium, free journalism purpose-built for social media.”
“We’ve faced more challenges than I can count in the past few years: 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.” Said Peretti.
Peretti also added that the company will focus on HuffPost, acquired in 2020, for the news brand of the company since the publication is “profitable with a loyal direct front page audience.
BuzzFeed News won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021 because of its coverage on China’s detention of hundreds of thousands of Muslims. Previously, the business has been experimenting with publications created by AI, such as quizzes and trip guides.
In 2022, BuzzFeed reported that the company delivered full-year revenues of $436.7 million, growing 10% compared to 2021. However, in the same year, it suffered a net loss of $201.3 million.
