Staff Reports
On Thursday morning, the CEO of BuzzFeed, Jonah Peretti, announced the closure of the company’s “news” division and the initiation of layoffs that will affect 15 percent of its workforce. Peretti cited the need to “streamline” the company’s product mix and “reduce layers” in its organization to increase its speed and effectiveness in pitches. The CEO lamented that the company could no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News, which was among the entities to be closed as a result of the downsizing.
BuzzFeed News is shutting down, part of a 15% reduction in the company's workforce https://t.co/y8JDbCwNOh
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) April 20, 2023
Peretti revealed that the company would concentrate its news-oriented efforts on HuffPost – a profitable brand with a highly engaged, loyal audience that is less reliant on social platforms. The company remains confident in its future despite the industry’s dire state, saying that it would utilize creators, AI, and cultural moments to bring more innovation to its clients.
Journos should have learned to code before the code learned to journo https://t.co/sKEbgSthgg
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) March 30, 2023
Never forget that it was Buzzfeed News that published the steaming pile of trash that was the Steele Dossier. pic.twitter.com/rsHWfJLc9I
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 20, 2023
How’s that working out? https://t.co/xzui5GkVlt
— Dr. Richard Harambe (@Richard_Harambe) April 20, 2023
The closure of BuzzFeed News comes as little surprise to some, given that the outlet was only one arm of the mainstream media cabal that based its operations on cozy relationships with Democrats, leading to a stream of embarrassing stories that were later found to be entirely false. For instance, it was BuzzFeed News that first published the debunked Steele Dossier about Donald Trump when he was a presidential candidate.
Perhaps most ironically, BuzzFeed News Union was giddy with excitement when its parent company endorsed the Biden campaign, leading to a significant economic downturn that hit the media company’s bottom line. BuzzFeed, much like other pro-Biden companies, has had to resort to layoffs as a result of the slowed growth and 40-year inflation that resulted from the profligate spending by the Democrats.
