BuzzFeed News to close and parent company to make substantial layoffs

BuzzFeed is shutting down what remains of its award-winning news department, signalling the end of an era for a website that once promised to upend the industry.

He said the whole company had been hit by the pandemic, a troubled stock market listing, a tough economy, a declining stock market, a slowdown in digital advertising, and changing audience habits.

BuzzFeed raised hundreds of millions of pounds from investors in the early 2010s as it surfed the explosion of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to distribute content. In addition to producing viral content such as quizzes and lists it invested in original news reporting, in the belief this would attract a higher quality of advertiser.

This expensive process involved hiring hundreds of journalists around the world and culminated in the company winning a Pulitzer prize for its reporting.

As part of the changes, Peretti announced that two leading executives have made the decision to leave the company.

BuzzFeed also owns HuffPost, which will continue to publish news but has also seen deep cutbacks to its coverage in recent years. Peretti said this site was profitable because it had a more loyal audience who visit its homepage directly, rather than relying on social media for distribution.

The announcement triggered a slew of reactions online, with many journalists mourning the closure of BuzzFeed News.