BuzzFeed is closing its news division as part of an effort to cut 15 percent of its work force after years of mounting financial difficulties, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti told staff Thursday morning, marking the end of a click-chasing, social-media-driven content factory that spawned many imitators in the 13 years since it launched.
Peretti sent a memo to staff Thursday morning, obtained by CNN’s Oliver Darcy, informing them that BuzzFeed News would be shutting down because it is no longer financially viable. Some of the BuzzFeed News staff will transition to the news vertical’s parent platform, BuzzFeed.com, which will continue on, as well as HuffPost, which BuzzFeed acquired in 2020.
Founded in 2011, BuzzFeed News became a traffic giant during the social-media era but has struggled to adjust to new industry dynamics.
“While layoffs are occurring across nearly every division, we’ve determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a standalone organization,” wrote Peretti. “Moving forward, we will have a single news brand in HuffPost, which is profitable, with a loyal direct front page audience.”
Edgar Hernandez, chief revenue officer, and Christian Baesler, chief operating officer, will depart as part of the shakeup. So will staff from the Business, Content, Tech, and Admin teams.
The CEO told staff that while he had done his utmost to keep BuzzFeed News running, structural issues could no longer be overcome.
“I made the decision to overinvest in BuzzFeed News because I like 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,” he wrote.
Peretti also explained that the integration of BuzzFeed and Complex could have been done faster to ensure greater revenue. He apologized for not holding the company to higher profitability standards to create the buffer needed to manage through economic and industry downturns.
Looking to the future, the CEO promised cutting-edge innovation, including artificial intelligence.
“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,” he wrote.
“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,” Peretti added.
BuzzFeed was the first outlet to publish the infamous Steele dossier, which made a series of unverified claims about then-candidate Donald Trump, including the allegation that he defiled a Russian hotel room with a prostitute. Then-BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith defended the decision to publish the dossier despite not having verified its contents by appealing to the fact that the FBI had briefed Trump on the claims it contained.
It was eventually revealed that the dossier had been paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign through its law firm Perkins Coie.