New York () — BuzzFeed News, the Pulitzer Prize-winning news site that became rapidly popular on the Internet about a decade ago, will shut down, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti announced Thursday.
The move was part of a wave of layoffs at BuzzFeed, Peretti said in a memo to employees, with the company cutting 15% of its workforce, or 180 employees.
“While layoffs are taking place in nearly every division, we have determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as an independent organization,” Peretti told staff.
BuzzFeed has “begun talks with the News Guild,” the union that represents the company’s staff, about the actions.
Peretti, who addressed the emotional newsroom for nearly an hour Thursday morning, indicated that some staff members could find positions with HuffPost, the digital news website that BuzzFeed acquired in a 2020 deal.
“HuffPost and BuzzFeed Dot Com have said they will open up a number of select features for BuzzFeed News members,” Peretti told employees. “These roles will be aligned with the business objectives of those divisions and will match the skills and strengths of many of BuzzFeed News’ editors and reporters.”
“Going forward, we will have a single news brand in HuffPost, which is profitable, with a loyal and direct front-page audience,” added Peretti.
While jarring, the news was not particularly surprising. Years ago, BuzzFeed invested heavily in its news product, hiring top journalists from traditional newsrooms and opening offices around the world. But in recent years, the company has moved away from that approach, slashing its newsroom.
The news that BuzzFeed News is shutting down sparked a flurry of messages posted online by former BuzzFeed News employees who expressed sadness and dismay. “What a fierce parody, a great loss for journalism” wrote on Twitter John Paczkowski, Forbes executive editor and former BuzzFeed News journalist. Kate Nocera, an editor at Axios and a former BuzzFeed News bureau chief, noted that the news was “a long time coming” but said she still “hurts.”
Ben Smith, the founding editor-in-chief who left the outlet years ago and co-founded digital outlet Semafor, told he is “heartbroken” by the news.
“I think it makes it very clear that the relationship between news publishers and social media is pretty much over,” Smith added, alluding to the fact that BuzzFeed’s growth was fueled by the surge of platforms like Facebook and Twitter a decade ago. .
Peretti said in his memo to employees that the economic environment had played a role in the measures announced Thursday, but also took some of the blame.
“I also want to be clear: I could have handled these changes better as CEO of this company and our leadership team could have performed better despite these circumstances,” Peretti said.
“I made the decision to invest too much in BuzzFeed News because I love their work and their mission so much,” he added. “This made me slow to accept that the big platforms would not provide the necessary distribution or financial support to support free and premium journalism designed specifically for social media.”
Peretti said that, generally speaking, he regretted not having “held the company to higher standards of profitability, to give us the necessary protection to handle economic and industry downturns and avoid painful days like today.”
“Our mission, our impact on the culture and our audience is what matters most,” Peretti said, “but we need a stronger business to protect and sustain this important work.”
A BuzzFeed News spokesperson told there are “ongoing discussions” about the future of the outlet’s website, but said all work will be archived and available after the newsroom closes.
BuzzFeed announced in January that it will use artificial intelligence to create content for its website. That announcement sent its shares up more than 150%, before eventually falling back to where they were, reflecting the broader uncertainty in the industry. Thursday’s layoff announcement and the shutdown of BuzzFeed News also sent the company’s shares, already dangerously low, down another 20%.
Edgar Hernandez, chief revenue officer, and Christian Baesler, chief operating officer, will leave as part of the changes at the company, Peretti said Thursday. Marcela Martin, president, “will assume responsibility for all revenue functions effective immediately.”
BuzzFeed isn’t the only news organization facing difficulties. Almost every major news, media and technology company has announced layoffs in recent months. Insider on Thursday, for example, said it will lay off about 10% of its staff, telling employees in a memo that the “economic headwinds that have affected many of our customers and partners are also affecting us.” we”.
