BuzzFeed News Shutting Down as Part of Company-Wide Reduction

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti informed employees of the move on Thursday

Tiffany Hagler-Geard/Bloomberg via Getty Images The BuzzFeed News website on a laptop computer arranged in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, U.S., on Monday, Dec. 6, 2021.

BuzzFeed News is shutting down.

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti sent out an email to staff Thursday morning saying the decision is part of a company-wide workplace reduction.

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"I am writing to announce some difficult news," Peretti wrote. "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."

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Peretti said that he had "overinvest(ed)" in BuzzFeed News because he loved its work and that the company "can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a standalone organization."

"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," he wrote.

The company will concentrate its news efforts on HuffPost and have a number of open roles for BuzzFeed News members in HuffPost and BuzzFeed.com, per Peretti.

"Moving forward, we will have a single news brand in HuffPost, which is profitable, with a loyal direct front page audience," Peretti wrote.

Peretti said BuzzFeed will engage with the News Guild about cost-reduction plans and how union members may be affected.

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