BuzzFeed News shutters newsroom, company implements sweeping staff cuts

Jonah Peretti, the founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, revealed in a company-wide memo on Thursday that BuzzFeed News will be closing down, marking the end of the once-iconic media brand.

“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,” Peretti stated in the email.

The CEO further assured the staff that if they had received the email, they would not be affected by the recent changes. In addition to the closure of BuzzFeed News, Peretti also shared that the company's Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) Edgar Hernandez and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Christian Baesler had made the decision to depart from BuzzFeed, with their exits scheduled to take place in the upcoming weeks.

BuzzFeed News employees who are impacted by the closure will have the chance to apply for "specific roles" at HuffPost and BuzzFeed.com, according to Peretti. He also mentioned that he intends to hold discussions with the News Guild union regarding the cost reduction plans and their implications for union members who may be affected.

BuzzFeed News was launched on January 28, 2013, as the news division of BuzzFeed, a digital media company known for its popular content and social news. BuzzFeed News was established as a separate entity within BuzzFeed to focus on journalism and news reporting.