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More layoffs planned at Buzzfeed after several editors leave

By Nagasunder in Business News, posted March 24, 2022

Buzzfeed has announced another plan to cut its news division after several editors left the company.

The company's founder and CEO, Jonah Peretti, has plans to cut about 1.7 percent of its total workforce, including small cuts at both BuzzFeed Video and Complex Editorial.

BuzzFeed reported fourth-quarter revenue and net income gains on Tuesday, March 22, but also said it expects sales and profit to fall year on year in the current March quarter.

Peretti, in a letter to BuzzFeed staff, said BuzzFeed News editor in chief Mark Schools had decided to part with the company and Samantha Henig would serve as interim EIC.

Peretti said: “She and I will talk to BuzzFeed News later today about our plans to position BuzzFeed News to thrive in the current media ecosystem, accelerate its path to profitability, and become a stronger financial contributor to the overall BuzzFeed, Inc. business,”

Tom Namako, who previously served as deputy editor in chief, will join NBC News as the new executive editor of NBC News Digital on Friday, April 25. He takes over for David Firestone, who is retiring.

BuzzFeed reported a revenue boost of 18 percent for the fourth quarter year-over-year to $145 million.

Advertising revenue grew by 24 percent to $69 million; content revenue by 33 percent to about $60 million; commerce revenue declined 26 percent to $16 million.

The company went public on the Nasdaq last year through a SPAC deal with 890 Fifth Avenue Partners, becoming one of the first publicly traded digital media companies. It also acquired HuffPost and Complex Networks.

BuzzFeed expected revenues to be down by “a low single-digit percentage year-over-year” in the current first quarter — or up 30% excluding the addition of Complex Networks.

It supposes attuned EBITDA losses in the range of $15 to $20 million for the combined company and stock-based compensation expenses in the range of $3.5 to $4.5 million.

Source: Deadline

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