BuzzFeed News is shutting down.
In an email to staff shared with NBC News, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said the move was part of a 15% workforce reduction across a number of teams.
“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,” he wrote.
Peretti said he had “overinvest[ed] 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,” he wrote.
He added that he had failed to “hold the company to higher standards for profitability” to give it a buffer for downturns.
Peretti said he planned to engage with the News Guild union about the cost reduction plans and what they would mean for affected union members.
This is a developing story.
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