BuzzFeed, the Pulitzer Prize-winning digital media company, has announced that it will be shutting down its news division and laying off 15% of its staff across the company. The layoffs will
affect BuzzFeed's business, content, tech and administrative teams, with additional job cuts expected in international markets. The decision to shut down the news division was made by the company's co-founder and chief executive, Jonah Peretti, who stated that he had "overinvested" in the news division and failed to recognise early enough that the financial support needed to sustain operations was not there. Digital advertising has plummeted this year, cutting into the profitability of major tech companies such as Google and Facebook.
BuzzFeed has approximately 1,200 total employees, according to a recent regulatory filing. Christian Baesler, the company's chief operating officer, and Edgar Hernandez, its chief revenue officer, are also leaving after they assist with the restructuring. BuzzFeed will now have one remaining news brand, HuffPost.
Many journalists who previously worked at BuzzFeed lamented the end of the news division. "I'm heartsick about it, and proud of the great journalism we did when I was there and after I left," said Ben Smith, BuzzFeed's editor from 2011 to 2020 and now editor in chief of Semafor. BuzzFeed had established itself as a serious contender in the news business, winning a Pulitzer in 2021 for international reporting. However, over the years, advertisers, on which BuzzFeed relies, have broadly pulled back on spending to address rising costs.
Despite the closure of the news division, BuzzFeed said that all of its work will be preserved and available within the BuzzFeed network. The company is also working to ensure that any stories currently in progress will be published and promoted on BuzzFeed properties.
This announcement comes just a few months after BuzzFeed said it would be cutting 12% of its workforce, citing worsening economic conditions. BuzzFeed was founded by Mr Peretti in 2006 and was initially known for listicles and online quizzes. The decision to shut down the news division "really marks the end of the marriage between news and social media", according to Ben Smith, author of Traffic, a forthcoming history of that era. Spending on advertising is typically among the most elastic items in a company's budget and is often the first place to see cuts. Photo by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Wikimedia commons.