BuzzFeed informed its staff this Thursday that it has decided to close its news portal, BuzzFeed News, created more than a decade ago and which became one of the most influential news outlets in the new digital landscape.
The move is part of a broader plan that will cut BuzzFeed's workforce by about 15%, according to an internal message from the company's chief executive, Jonah Peretti, advanced by the US network CNN and later confirmed by the company.
"Although the layoffs will occur in nearly every division, we have determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as an independent organization," Peretti explained.
BuzzFeed - born in 2006 and which has based its success on viral content such as lists, quizzes and entertainment articles - launched its news portal in 2011, which has since operated as a media outlet on its own.
Although BuzzFeed News had a major impact and was eventually recognized with a Pulitzer Prize, it never became profitable and had already recently been downsized in an attempt to limit those losses.
Peretti, in his message, admitted having made mistakes in the management of that journalistic project and having invested excessively without guaranteeing the profitability of the business.
As he explained, from now on BuzzFeed will concentrate its work in the field of news at HuffPost, a digital medium that it bought in 2020.
In addition, he said that both BuzzFeed and HuffPost will offer jobs to several of the employees affected by the closure of BuzzFeed News.
The closure of the medium is part of a plan that will lead to layoffs in the Business, Content, Technology and Administration teams, as well as cuts in some international markets in which the company is present, although Peretti did not specify in which countries.
BuzzFeed, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, plunged more than 20% on Wall Street after the news broke.
In a communication to the stock market regulator, the company reported that the layoffs will cost it between 7 and 11 million dollars.
