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Jonah Peretti
Craig Barritt/Getty Images
The media meltdown continues, with BuzzFeed becoming the latest company to cut employees.
Digital Media, led by Jonah Peretti, has announced that it will cut its workforce by 16 percent in a difficult environment.
“Digital publishers face multiple headwinds in the current market, and our recent revenue performance reflects the fact that our bundled portfolio approach is not aligned with current advertiser and platform trends.” wrote BuzzFeed CEO Peretti in an email to staff on Wednesday. “More importantly, our operating results do not reflect the value or future growth potential of our individual brands. Due to the changes we are making to reduce the size of our business and management teams, , each brand will operate more autonomously. Going forward, we will focus on bringing each brand to market with a focus on differentiation for our advertising and platform partners.”
BuzzFeed also announced Wednesday that it is selling Complex to livestream shopping platform NTWRK for $108.6 million, plus $5.7 million for office expenses and severance. BuzzFeed will retain First We Feast under contract.
The new layoffs come nearly a year after BuzzFeed cut its workforce by 15 percent, shut down BuzzFeed News and focused all of its news content on HuffPost. The company also announced Wednesday a new structure in which BuzzFeed, HuffPost, First We Feast and Tasty will operate as separate business units “with separate strategies and revenue lines tailored to market and audience trends.”
Specific details of the new restructuring are expected to be announced on February 28th (and employees will be notified at the same time), but the company says the plan is expected to result in annual cost savings of $23 million. Peretti said in his email that HuffPost, Teck, Buzzfeed Studios, Tasty, First We Feast (including Hot Ones) and International will not be affected by the layoffs, which total just under 160 people. Stated.
The company plans to use the cash obtained from the sale of the complex to repay debt and strengthen its financial base going forward.
“With the changes we are announcing today, our iconic brands BuzzFeed, HuffPost, First We Feast, and hot ones, and delicious. A more efficient cost structure and operating model. The ability to leverage AI and interactive content formats to accelerate innovation,” Peretti said in a statement. “We look forward to sharing more in the coming months.”
BuzzFeed also reported that fourth-quarter revenue was in the range of $87 million to $98 million, compared to the $99 million to $110 million financial outlook the company issued in November (including $14 million to $14 million for Complex). (including $18 million in revenue), the company warned investors.
“During the fourth quarter, our experiences business experienced an impact in the form of lower sponsorship revenue for ComplexCon, the brand’s annual flagship event,” Matt Omar, BuzzFeed’s chief financial officer, said in a statement. “We believe this is the result of Complex assets being put up for sale.” “Furthermore, our overall revenue performance reflects the challenge of achieving our overall go-to-market strategy amidst a tightening digital advertising market. As a result, we have increased the scale of our centralized operations. We made the decision to scale back and allow individual brands to operate more autonomously and offer a differentiated value proposition to advertisers.”
As Omer noted in his statement, BuzzFeed’s layoffs come amid turmoil in the media market.
washington post, Los Angeles Times, time, messenger, Condé Nast, sports illustrated, business insiderParamount, forbes, wall street journal, new york daily news, national geographic and baltimore sun Every company has experienced layoffs and labor disputes in recent weeks, business models have been thrown into disarray, and advertising (at least news outlets and terrestrial television) remains in crisis.
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