VIEW EVENT INFORMATION: Huffington Post
BuzzFeed Announces Deep Cuts To HuffPost Staff After Acquisition
MAR
9
Status: Available Now!
Type: News
Date: Tuesday 9 March 2021, 12:00 AM
Media: Huffington Post

SOURCE
About the organization Huffington Post:
Type: Business
Sub-Types: Newspaper, Online News, Blogging, Media, Online Press, Website, Press, Application Software, Telecommunication, Telecommunication Software
BuzzFeed announced layoffs for the HuffPost newsroom on Tuesday, three weeks after acquiring HuffPost from Verizon Media in February. Hillary Frey, the site’s executive editor, and Louise Roug, the executive editor for international, will be departing in a restructuring effort aimed at stemming financial losses. HuffPost Canada will also shutter operations later this month. A deal between BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Verizon Media was first made public in November. Verizon Media stated at the time that BuzzFeed and HuffPost would operate as “separate, distinct news organizations” with their own websites and editorial staff while BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti led the combined company. It has been a particularly grim year for the media industry. The coronavirus pandemic undermined a business model already on shaky ground due to a massive shift in digital advertising spend toward tech giants Google and Facebook. Layoffs across the industry were on track to break records late last year, Variety reported. Peretti told staffers that the decision, which will affect 47 U.S. employees, including eight in management, was made in order to “fast-track the path to profitability” for HuffPost, enabling the company to break even this year and eventually turn a profit. HuffPost’s losses totaled around $20 million in 2020, he said. “Though BuzzFeed is a profitable company, we don’t have the resources to support another two years of losses,” Peretti said. “We want to ensure the homepage remains a top destination on the internet,” he added. “We also want to maintain high traffic, preserve your most powerful journalism, lean more deeply into politics and breaking news, and build a stronger business for affiliate revenue and shopping content.” Although the site has struggled financially for several years, some HuffPost staffers criticized the lack of resources expended to promote the site and its content under Verizon Media.
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