Less than 11 years after its launch, BuzzFeed News is ceasing operations.
On Thursday, BuzzFeed’s CEO and founder Jonah Peretti announced the company will be shutting down. The layoffs were implemented as part of a wider strategy to reduce BuzzFeed’s workforce by 15% “across our Business, Content, Tech, and Admin teams.” Christian Baesler, who oversees operations, and Edgar Hernandez, who handles sales, will also be traveling.
“It may not look like it today, but I have no doubt that we hold the key to the digital media of tomorrow. There is a dire need for a clean slate in our sector. Peretti told employees in an open letter, “We are working hard today and will start to fight for a bright future.”
According to the New York Times, around sixty people will be affected by the closure of BuzzFeed News. BuzzFeed.com and The Huffington Post, another BuzzFeed affiliate, will offer positions to about a dozen former news department employees.
The Huffington Post, a left-leaning site with “a highly engaged, loyal audience that is less dependent on social platforms,” will take up much of BuzzFeed’s reporting.
BuzzFeed’s news division has contributed to the company’s revenue problems.
Since I admire and support BuzzFeed News’ mission, I made the irresponsible decision to invest heavily in the organization. As a result, I found it impossible to imagine that the major platforms wouldn’t invest in the advertising and funding necessary to promote high-quality, free journalism that was created just for social media, as Peretti put it.
He expressed regret that he had not demanded more profit from the firm, which would have provided a buffer against economic and industrial downturns and prevented “days like today.” To paraphrase, “I’ve learned from these mistakes, and so has the team that is moving forward.”
In 2021, BuzzFeed News won a Pulitzer for an article exposing the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region.
The news department has gained notoriety for being the first to publish the discredited Steele Dossier, a collection of salacious allegations made about former president Donald Trump. The Clinton campaign commissioned the study as a form of negative advertising. The FBI used it to justify obtaining warrants to conduct surveillance on the former president’s 2016 campaign.