BuzzFeed is shutting down its news division and cutting 15% of its staff.
CEO Jonah Peretti announced the news Thursday in an email to the entire company.
“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,” Peretti told workers.
Employees were left stunned by the news.
“I honestly have no idea what to say [right now] — I started at buzzfeed fresh out of college and have been here nearly 8 years,” senior reporter Julia Reinstein wrote on Twitter. “I love the work I do and my coworkers in a way that made me feel so lucky. spent years fighting for our union contract. this f—in hurts.”
Though BuzzFeed was initially best known for short, listicle internet content, the company built out a news division in the 2010s and eventually won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021 for its reporting on China’s detention of Uighurs.
“I made the decision to overinvest in BuzzFeed News because I love your work and mission so much,” Peretti told employees. “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.”