Culture BREAKING: Buzzfeed News to shut down

Hannah Nightingale
Apr 20, 2023

On Thursday, Buzzfeed News announced that it would be shutting down, with CRO Edgar Hernandez and COO leaving the company and layoffs being announced.

In an email from Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti, said, "we are reducing our workforce by approximately 15 percent today across our Business, Content, Tech, and Admin teams, and beginning the process of closing Buzzfeed News.



"Additionally, we are proposing headcount reductions in some international markets," the email added.

Peretti said that Hernandez and Baesler have left the company, with President Marcela Martin taking on "responsibility for all revenue functions effective immediately."

"While layoffs are occurring across nearly every division, we’ve determined that the company can no longer continue to fund Buzzfeed News…" Peretti wrote.

Peretti stated that "HuffPost and Buzzfeed Dot Com have signaled that they will open a number of select roles for members of Buzzfeed News. These rules will be aligned with those divisions’ business goals and match the skills and strengths of many of Buzzfeed NEws’s editors and reporters."

"We raised this idea with the News Guild this morning and look forward to discussing it further. Moving forward, we will have a single news brand in HuffPost, which is profitable, with a loyal direct front page audience."

Peretti explained that the decision to shut down the news branch of the company came about because of the pandemic, "a fading SPAC marked that yielded less capital, a tech recession, a tough economy, a declining stock market, a decelerating digital advertising marked and ongoing audience and platform shifts."

"Dealing with all of these obstacles at once is part of why we’ve needed to make the difficult decisions to eliminate more jobs and reduce spending," he added.

This is a breaking story and will be updated

Article/Archive

 

[TVB]

I might be late by saying this, and I want to apologize in advance, but
#RIPBOZO #PACKWATCH
RIP YOU WON'T BE MISSED

Fuck Buzzfeed. And nothing of value was lost.

 

[niggyfaggot]

Am I the only one who thought it died years ago after the Hulkster went into a state of hulkamania on it? Haven't followed any media in years so I'm aadmittedlyout of the loop here but genuinely thought this shitheap shutdown years back lol. Good riddance to bad garbage I guess...

 

[retard safari]

Journo's cry more
I piss on them

 

[Gar For Archer]

Am I the only one who thought it died years ago after the Hulkster went into a state of hulkamania on it? Haven't followed any media in years so I'm aadmittedlyout of the loop here but genuinely thought this shitheap shutdown years back lol. Good riddance to bad garbage I guess...

That was Gawker.

 

[Smar Mijou]

Good.

Trying to evolve from some content-stealing clickbait factory to a "legitimate" news operation would always be a red flag.

The only "content" that Buzzsneed ever seemed to steal was 3+ year old pReddit posts or reciting verbatim a Twitter thread, and posting it as if it is the cultural zeitgeist of the Current Thing. I don't think there was ever any chance of becoming legitimate after coming from such humble origins.

"Work experience : Buzzfeed" must be one of the most poisonous things to have in your resumé. I'd honestly prefer to put nothing than to put that

It might get you a phone interview with McDonald's....

I wonder how many more years we have to listen to shitty companies tell us they're failing because the pandemic happened.

Well "2 weeks to flatten the curve" ended up being almost 2 solid years of bullshit in places like California. And "pandemic related supply chain issues" is the catch-all term for every missed production target, out of stock item, or lapse in quality going on 3 years now... so I would wager to guess that the Wuhan Flu will be the blame for everything wrong in the world for the better part of a decade. And the part about all of it is that it was these exact type of Woke beta-faggot "journalists" who whipped the world into a frenzy over the Covid in the first place searching for more fear-beating clicks on their shit-tier websites.

 

[niggyfaggot]

That was Gawker.

My bad, I've held them all in the same regard since like 2016 anyway. BBC or CNN isn't any more reputable than these shit tier rags imhlo.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

It might get you a phone interview with McDonald's....

Would be better to say you were on rehab for heroine or in jail during that span of time

 

[Humbert Humbert]

Society is healing. Even though it’s not all of Buzzfeed, it’s progress.

 

[Jibbers Cribbers]

I hope Jewsweek gets shohah'd soon.

 

[TVB]

Society is healing. Even though it’s not all of Buzzfeed, it’s progress.

I mean, society is now taking some baby steps. It goes to show that we currently live in a very interesting timeline for sure.

 

[A.P. Hill]

This Joe Bernstein pack won't light itself...

 

[Muttley]

total sargon victory

 

[Zirnwyb]

BITES ZA DUSTO


Now if only Buzzsneed would die out completely. That would be a dream come true.

 

[Heavy Duty Boots]

I always had the idea of an editorial site doing pieces or videos on lowcows and calling it either Lowcow News Network (LNN) or Kiwi News Network (KNN)

What about Kiwi's Krappy Kommunications? (KKK)
It would keep with the Final Solutions LLC and KiwiFlare DDOS retarding naming scheme

 

[Ghostse]

That was Gawker.

There is a difference?

And "pandemic related supply chain issues" is the catch-all term for every missed production target, out of stock item, or lapse in quality going on 3 years now.

In all fairness, if you've ever seen how the sausage is made, the global supply chain is fucked until 2030 and maybe even longer (for varying levels of fucked). Companies have adapted (i.e. more warehousing in destination countries to buffer instead of trying to do JIT, utilizing alternate supply routes [air/smaller ports], better cargo distribution [not all the trucks clog the same highway] crew adjustment on the ocean instead of in port, paying the upcharge for [essentially] customs at the originating port).
All the ripples from Evergreen blocking the Suez haven't fully subsided.

that said, if they haven't adapted to minimize disruptions by this point, they are retards.

 

[Smar Mijou]

In all fairness, if you've ever seen how the sausage is made, the global supply chain is fucked until 2030 and maybe even longer (for varying levels of fucked). Companies have adapted (i.e. more warehousing in destination countries to buffer instead of trying to do JIT, utilizing alternate supply routes [air/smaller ports], better cargo distribution [not all the trucks clog the same highway] crew adjustment on the ocean instead of in port, paying the upcharge for [essentially] customs at the originating port).
All the ripples from Evergreen blocking the Suez haven't fully subsided.

that said, if they haven't adapted to minimize disruptions by this point, they are retards.

Oh I agree that there are still lingering issues, especially for the places heavily dependent on China for wholesale goods and raw materials for manufacturing. It seems the Chinks are still randomly shutting down entire provinces due to their "zero covid" policy, which definitely does put a cramp on global trade. My issue is with everyone else using that same excuse for arbitrary quality lapses or price increases when the real reason is just unfettered greed.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

The only "content" that Buzzsneed ever seemed to steal was 3+ year old pReddit posts or reciting verbatim a Twitter thread, and posting it as if it is the cultural zeitgeist of the Current Thing. I don't think there was ever any chance of becoming legitimate after coming from such humble origins.

Their clickbait "listicles" (if you could call it that) would use photos from Flickr and other blogs (linked back, but never used with permission). They were profiting from it and definitely wasn't using it under transformative content/fair use.

 

[Friend of Dorothy Parker]

My bad, I've held them all in the same regard since like 2016 anyway. BBC or CNN isn't any more reputable than these shit tier rags imhlo.

There was zero similarity between the real Gawker (gossip/articles/essays (originally, NYC-centric, esp NY media) set over robust community message boards) and Buzzfeed (mostly listicles, product promos, and occasional articles; if they had comments or a community, it was perfunctory at best; they started doing a bit more meaty writing on occasion maybe mid-2010s, but not by much).

The original Gawker board ceased ops in 2016, so I'm not sure what regard you really could have had "since 2016." The thing that published under the Gawker name in recent years isn't real Gawker (and afaict does not even have comments, much less a commentariat) [I did just glance at it and it looked a bit different...then just now I saw that it has a new EIC (former real Gawker writer (meh)) as of 2/23, so maybe it will be better, though there still appears to be no community aspect]

Gawker was not a broadbased news reporting org, nothing like BBC or CNN. And the scoops and takes were things the "MSM" [God I hate that term] wouldn't touch (Cosby, Weinstein, Epstein were all ripped on Gawker years before everyone else would dare breathe a word of those open secrets, for example) - both because they were (sometimes) niche, and because they were often edgier and more salacious and dangerous to publicize than standard media stomachs would allow (see above).

Which is, of course, what led to their downfall when already butthurt Thiel took up Hogan's cause with his pockets.

TBH, Original Gawker was not unlike the Farms, in the sense of pushing edges, engendering death wishes from many corners, and ignoring (or saying "fuck you" to) sacred cows.

I'll also add that as Gawker evolved, you saw some really good writing (if you like that sort of thing), in sharp contrast to the c&p "style" of your Buzzfeeds and eonlines and whatever other for-sale entertainment news sites were/are out there. Many of the alumni have gone on to write/work for the tippy-top of media writing/editing jobs and/or have written well-received books. Again, you may value or not value any of that, but as a group they've had much-above-average success in a sector that increasingly eschews actual writing, and even moreso quality writing.

 

[ChromaQuack]

I have learned two things thanks to this thread:

1. Apparently buzzfeed had a news site and it died because it was shit.

2. An alarming number of giganiggers in this forum can't read and think buzzfeed (parent company) died instead.

Very informative, thanks to whoever featured it.

Edit : I believe buzzfeed could do their former employees a solid and put out 'top 10 most painless suicide methods' and a sister article to go with 'top 10 hardware shops with heavily discounted rope', both written by AI, of course.

 

[Smar Mijou]

I'll also add that as Gawker evolved, you saw some really good writing (if you like that sort of thing), in sharp contrast to the c&p "style" of your Buzzfeeds and eonlines and whatever other for-sale entertainment news sites were/are out there. Many of the alumni have gone on to write/work for the tippy-top of media writing/editing jobs and/or have written well-received books. Again, you may value or not value any of that, but as a group they've had much-above-average success in a sector that increasingly eschews actual writing, and even moreso quality writing.

I only ever followed Jalopnik and a bit of Gizmodo. When they rolled out their bullshit kinja format I bailed out and never really went back.