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BuzzFeed to shrink its news division, cut jobs to raise profitability

Date: March 24, 2022 Omkar Patwardhan Omkar Patwardhan
BuzzFeed to shrink its news division, cut jobs to raise profitability 
BuzzFeed, the American news and internet media company, has reportedly announced plans to shrink and reorient its news division as the digital media firm popularly recognized for its upbeat quizzes and lists aims to increase its profits.



Meanwhile, some top editors are also reported to be quitting with the New York-based firm's prominent, 100-person newsroom, which is not offering voluntary buyouts.



Mark Schoofs, editor in chief, as well as Tom Namako, deputy editor in chief, BuzzFeed News, who joined NBC News Digital on Tuesday, are among the ones leaving the firm. Ariel Kaminer, the executive editor for investigations, is also resigning.



BuzzFeed News is not profitable but has received awards, notably its first Pulitzer last year, and its employees have been recruited by traditional news organizations on a regular basis.



According to Matt Mittenthal, BuzzFeed's spokesperson, around 35 workers were qualified for the buyouts, although the business does not presume all of them to take one.



As BuzzFeed tends to focus mostly on large breaking events as well as lighter content, buyouts will be granted to media staffers in politics, inequality, science teams, and investigations.



Aside from the newsroom buyouts, the firm also announced that it is laying off 1.7 percent of its workforce. Buzzfeed reported having 1,524 U.S. and overseas employees in a January filing with securities authorities, implying that the layoffs will affect about 25 people.



BuzzFeed's shares have plunged over 40% since the firm went public in early December via a SPAC, or a merger with a publicly traded firm, instead of an IPO.



Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed's CEO, and co-founder during BuzzFeed's earnings announcement on Tuesday, stated that the business is increasing its investment in vertical video, the smartphone layout used on TikTok, a largely prominent video sharing platform.



In a note to employees, Peretti stated the news division must shrink in size so that the firm can prioritize the coverage areas its audience interacts with the most.



Source credit: https://japantoday.com/category/business/buzzfeed-cutting-jobs-top-editors-leaving-news-division

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Omkar Patwardhan

Omkar Patwardhan started his professional career in the hospitality industry. Having nurtured a deep-sated passion for words however, he found his way into content writing and now pens down articles for numerous websites, including News Origins, spanning the sectors of business, finance, and technology.