BuzzFeed to shut down its News division amid workforce reductions

BuzzFeed CEO said that he planned to engage with the News Guild union regarding the cost reduction plans and what that would mean for affected union members

American media and news company BuzzFeed is shutting down its News division. 

According to a report from NBC, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti informed the employees in an email that the move was part of a 15 per cent workforce reduction across a number of teams, which included Business, Content, Tech, and Admin teams.

The company was founded in 2006 in the United States by Jonah  Peretti   and John Seward Johnson III.

BuzzFeed CEO Peretti also said, "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 organisation." 

Peretti further added that he had over-invested in BuzzFeed News because of Peretti's love for their work and mission. He also said, "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."

Peretti said that he planned to engage with the News Guild union regarding the cost reduction plans and what that would mean for affected union members.

Both BuzzFeed News' CRO Edgar Hernandez and COO Christian Baesler also exited the company, said CEO, who further added that the company has faced more challenges in the past few years than he can count, including the Coronavirus pandemic and fading SPAC market.

Peretti said that he had failed to hold the company to its higher standards for profitability.