BuzzFeed to cut 15% of its overall workforce

BuzzFeed is planning to lay off 15 per cent of its workforce—roughly around 220 employees—according to an article in CNBC, whose parent company NBCUniversal is a minority investor in BuzzFeed.

An internal memo from BuzzFeed’s CEO Jonah Peretti said that necessary cuts would be made since the media company is seeking to reduce costs without the need to raise funding.

“I’m so proud of what our team accomplished over the last year, including diversifying our revenue and growing our business double digits. Unfortunately, revenue growth by itself isn’t enough to be successful in the long run,” read the memo from Peretti. “The restructuring we are undertaking will reduce our costs and improve our operating model so we can thrive and control our own destiny, without ever needing to raise funding again. These changes will allow us to be the clear winner in the market as the economics of digital media continue to improve.”

“This will be a tough week for all of us and I realize it will be much worse for the people losing their jobs. To them, I want to say thank you, I’m sorry our work together is ending this way, and I hope we get to work together again in the future. Our loss will be to the benefit of other organizations where I know you will go on to make formidable contributions.”

Launched in 2006, BuzzFeed was “among the leaders of a group of digital upstarts that were adroit with social media and rode a wave of venture capital investment to become magnets for digital audiences,” reported the Wall Street Journal. The same article also said that last week, BuzzFeed News found itself the “subject of intense scrutiny from media and political observers after it published a story that President Trump directed his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about negotiations to construct a building in Moscow.”