BuzzFeed announces layoffs for the HuffPost newsroom today. The social news site bought HuffPost from Verizon Media in February. Verizon Media became a minority shareholder in BuzzFeed as part of the deal. Also, the telecom company and BuzzFeed agreed to syndicate content across each other’s platforms.
At the time the deal was announced in November 2020, BuzzFeed Founder and CEO Jonah Peretti struck a nostalgic and optimistic tone. “I have vivid memories of growing HuffPost into a major news outlet in its early years, but BuzzFeed is making this acquisition because we believe in the future of HuffPost and the potential it has to continue to define the media landscape for years to come,” Peretti said. “With the addition of HuffPost, our media network will have more users, spending significantly more time with our content than any of our peers.”
It was a bit of Back to the Future for Peretti. He co-founded HuffPost in 2005 with Arianna Huffington. Andew Breitbart and Kenneth Lerer were also part of the HuffPost founding team.
Fast forward to today. HuffPost’s Sara Boboltz reports that a restructuring is underway at HuffPost. Executive editors Hillary Frey and Louise Roug “are departing in a restructuring effort aimed at stemming financial losses.”
Boboltz says Peretti informed staffers today that 47 U.S. based employees would be laid off to “fast-track the path to profitability” for HuffPost.
“Though BuzzFeed is a profitable company, we don’t have the resources to support another two years of losses.
We want to ensure the homepage remains a top destination on the internet. We also want to maintain high traffic, preserve your most powerful journalism, lean more deeply into politics and breaking news, and build a stronger business for affiliate revenue and shopping content.”
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti memo to staff, March 9, 2021
