BuzzFeed's CEO Jonah Peretti told BuzzFeed News employees it would be shutting down and laying off the newsroom in a video meeting..Shutting down BuzzFeed News is part of broader layoffs at the company, which Peretti told employees in a memo. The organization is cutting 15% of its workforce, resulting in the loss of 180 jobs..“While layoffs are occurring across nearly every division, we've determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a stand-alone organization,” said Peretti..BuzzFeed has talked about the layoffs with the News Guild, the labour union representing the employees..On Thursday morning, Peretti spoke to the newsroom for almost an hour, suggesting that some employees could secure positions at HuffPost, the online news platform BuzzFeed purchased in 2020..“HuffPost and BuzzFeed have signalled that they will open a number of select roles for members of BuzzFeed News,” Peretti told employees..“These roles will be aligned with those divisions' business goals and match the skills and strengths of many of BuzzFeed News editors and reporters.”.“Moving forward, we will have a single news brand in HuffPost, which is profitable, with a loyal direct front page audience,” said Peretti..The announcement was not entirely unexpected..BuzzFeed dedicated significant resources to its news division, attracting leading journalists from established newsrooms and opening bureaus globally..The company has shifted its focus in recent years and substantially downsized its newsroom..Ben Smith, the founding editor-in-chief, departed from the outlet years ago and co-founded another news website Semafor..“I do think it makes really clear the relationship between news publishers and social media is pretty much over,” said Smith..In his memo, Peretti acknowledged that the economic climate contributed to closing BuzzFeed News. He accepted partial responsibility for the layoffs..“I also want to be clear. I could have managed these changes better as the CEO of this company and our leadership team could have performed better despite these circumstances,” said Peretti..“I made the decision to over-invest 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.”
