BuzzFeed News is shutting down, company laying off 180 staffers

BuzzFeed is shutting down BuzzFeed News because it is not able to turn a profit, according to a memo CEO Jonah Peretti sent to company staff. The digital publisher is laying off 15% of its employees, or about 180 people.

Going forward, BuzzFeed will be concentrate its news efforts in a single profitable news organization, HuffPost, which it acquired from Verizon in 2020.

In the memo, Peretti said, “I made the decision to overinvest in BuzzFeed News because I love their work and mission so much. 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.”

BuzzFeed president Marcela Martin will take on responsibility for all revenue functions effective immediately. Chief revenue officer Edgar Hernandez and COO Christian Baesler are leaving the company.

According to a BuzzFeed rep, there are ongoing discussions about the future of BuzzFeedNews.com, but all of BFN’s work will be preserved and available within the BuzzFeed network. The company also is working to ensure any stories currently in the works will be published and promoted on BuzzFeed properties as well.

BuzzFeed.com and HuffPost will be offering roles to a number of BuzzFeed News journalists to match areas where they’re interested in expanding coverage, the rep added — who said that no jobs are being replaced by AI.

Over the next couple of months, we will work together to run a more agile and focused business organization with the capacity to bring in more revenue. 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. We will empower our editorial teams at all of our brands to do the very best creative work and build an interface where that work can be packaged and brought to advertisers more effectively. And we will bring more innovation to clients in the form of creators, AI, and cultural moments that can only happen across BuzzFeed, Complex, HuffPost, Tasty and First We Feast.

It might not feel this way today, but I am confident the future of digital media is ours for the taking. Our industry is hurting and ready to be reborn. We are taking great pains today, and will begin to fight our way to a bright future.

On Monday we’ll begin to have conversations with each division about the way forward. And in the meantime, I hope you can take time for yourselves this weekend.

Thank you for supporting one another on a difficult day.