BuzzFeed News Shuttering Amid 15% Company-Wide Layoffs

thewrap.com:

posted online by New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin. He said the company can “no longer afford to fund” the news section as a standalone organization amid declining readership.The shutdown will shift the company’s news efforts to HuffPost, which it bought in 2021. “We will concentrate our news efforts in HuffPost, a brand that is profitable with a highly engaged, loyal audience that is less dependent on social platforms,” Peretti said in the memo.

Some BuzzFeed news staffers will be moved, he said, and the company is in discussions with the News Guild over editorial roles.The move comes amid widespread layoffs in tech and media, affecting news organizations from legacy brands like NBC to more digital-focused companies like Vox Media.

Peretti included a long explanation for what happened to the news site in his memo. “We’ve faced more challenges than I can count in the past few years,” he said, citing the pandemic, the disappointing launch of its stock through a SPAC deal as that market faded, the tech recession and the tough economy, including the declining digital adverstising market and ongoing audience and platform shifts. “Dealing with these obstacles at once is part of why we’ve needed to make the difficult to decisions to eliminate more jobs and reduce spending,” he said.The company had previously cut its staff by 12% in December, the latest round of string of layoffs over recent years.“I could have managed these changes better,” Peretti admitted in his memo. “Our job is to adapt, change, improve and perform despite the challenges in the world.