According to a memo from CEO Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed News, a once-successful aggregator that produced tests, lists, and articles from a left-wing perspective, is closing.
According to the Daily Mail, the corporation has been losing upwards of $10 million annually on its news division, which led to the decision.
“We are reducing our workforce by approximately 15 percent today across our Business, Content, Tech and Admin teams, and beginning the process of closing BuzzFeed News,” CEO Jonah Peretti said in the memo sent to company staff.
BREAKING: BuzzFeed news is shutting down. @peretti’s memo: pic.twitter.com/k3vGnHOkcl
— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) April 20, 2023
“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,” Peretti continued, before saying that he “overinvested” in the company’s news division.
“It might not feel this way today, but I am confident the future of digital media is ours for the taking,” Peretti continued.
Peretti also mentioned that certain BuzzFeed News employees would be joining the Huffington Post, a sibling website of the firm.
Potentially contributing to the firm’s unsustainable and ultimately catastrophic financial predicament is the expensive “union” of BuzzFeed News writers, which amusingly claims on its website to have helped the company create a “stronger newsroom while remaining nimble.”
In 2022, the ‘union’ began a strike as the business was already having trouble turning a profit. Stephen Miller, a conservative commentator, joked that he had supported the strike at the time.
REACTIONS FROM TWITTER USERS:
BREAKING: BuzzFeed News is shutting down. Founder and CEO Jonah Peretti announced in a company-wide memo:
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) April 20, 2023
“We are reducing our workforce by approximately 15% today across our Business, Content, Tech and Admin teams, and beginning the process of closing BuzzFeed News." pic.twitter.com/tC6RVlbfHN
Here at the top 10 reasons I don’t care about Buzzfeed news going under.
— Tim Dillon (@TimJDillon) April 20, 2023