'Don't know what the hell he's talking about': Acosta on Fox News host 'I saw it on TV! ': Why Trump supporter says she believes election lie PASADENA, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 16: President and CEO, Discovery, Inc. David Zaslav speaks onstage during the Discovery, Inc. TCA Winter Panel 2020 at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 16, 2020 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Amanda Edwards/Getty Images for Discovery, Inc.) This is what CNN reporter was working on during period records were obtained secretly (CNN) — BuzzFeed is preparing to lay off about 15% of its employees. The coming contraction is the latest example of a media company making cutbacks in a difficult operating environment. The reductions will affect multiple departments, including the news division, according to sources familiar with the matter. BuzzFeed has about 1,450 employees, so about 220 will be leaving, one of the sources confirmed. BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti confirmed the sharp cut on Wednesday after reporters from other news outlets began inquiring. The layoffs, he said in an internal memo, are part of a broader effort to “put us on a firm foundation and allow us to invest and grow sustainably for years to come.” After “extensive work” in the past few months, “we’ve developed a good understanding of where we can consolidate our teams, focus in on the content that is working, and achieve the right cost structure to support our multi-revenue model,” Peretti wrote. He said the “restructuring” will reduce costs and “improve our operating model so we can thrive and control our own destiny, without ever needing to raise funding again. These changes will allow us to be the clear winner in the market as the economics of digital media continue to improve.” Staffers at BuzzFeed have been bracing for bad news for days. Employees had learned senior editors were being flown into BuzzFeed’s New York City offices and cuts to staff were widely speculated about internally. Executives were trying to wait until next week to announce the restructuring, but the speculation and leaks sped up the timeline. “This is going to be a tough week,” BuzzFeed News editor Ben Smith said in an email to staffers as the news trickled out on Wednesday evening. “I realize that you will have a lot of questions about specifics. We’re committed to answering them, but we aren’t going to be able to until next week,” he wrote. “Thank you for bearing with us.” The BuzzFeed contraction comes during a turbulent time in digital media, and the journalism industry as a whole. Verizon announced on Wednesday that it would cut 7% of staff from its media division which is comprised of brands that include Yahoo, AOL, and HuffPost. Layoffs also hit several newspapers owned by Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper chain, on Wednesday. Each case has unique characteristics, but the overall story is the same: Changes in advertising and consumer behavior are causing a reckoning in both old and new media. Facebook and Google have upended the ad business, prompting websites to seek out new sources of revenue. Digital ventures like BuzzFeed have also been under increasing pressure from venture capitalists, who have provided sizable rounds of funding, to deliver results. Peretti said in Wednesday’s memo that BuzzFeed’s business has grown by “double digits” in the past year, but “unfortunately, revenue growth by itself isn’t enough to be successful in the long run.” He added, “Even though I’m confident this is the right business decision, it is upsetting and disappointing.” BuzzFeed went through a much smaller round of layoffs last September, when its podcasting division was shuttered. A few months prior to that, in June 2018, BuzzFeed cut 20 staffers as it reorganized its business operations. And in November 2017, the company laid off approximately 100 employees – a move that hit sales and marketing, along with staffers in the British news and business teams. But it has continued to hire in other areas, reshaping itself, like many other digital media companies. Last year, Peretti floated the idea of digital companies merging with each other to gain better leverage over Facebook and Google and strike better advertising deals. “If BuzzFeed and five of the other biggest companies were combined into a bigger digital media company, you would probably be able to get paid more money,” Peretti told The New York Times in an interview last November. At the time, Peretti mentioned Group Nine Media, Vice, and Vox Media as companies he viewed as “doing interesting work.” Peretti has spoken to Benjamin Lerer, the chief executive of Group Nine Media, about a possible deal, but the talks are not active at this time, a person familiar with the matter told CNN Business. Group Nine Media, which formed in 2016, is the parent company of NowThis, Thrillist, The Dodo, and Seeker. The company, whose investors include Discovery and Axel Springer, recently raised an additional $40 million in funding.<doc-sep>Many of those affected by BuzzFeed’s latest round of layoffs have been taking to Twitter this morning to share the unhappy news. The company confirmed Wednesday it planned to lay off 15% of its workforce, or about 200 people, including many news staffers. In a memo to employees on Wednesday, co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti said the company would offer specifics about job eliminations by “Monday at the latest,” but today appears to be the leading edge of the cuts. The timing of the layoffs is far from ideal for the digital outlet. After initially gaining traction with superficial fare like listicles and quizzes, BuzzFeed has aggressively beefed up its investigative reporting capabilities. It made waves with the publication of the so-called “Russian dossier” last year and this month a bombshell report that President Donald Trump directed his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress. (The news was provocative enough to elicit a denial from the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.) Those stories, plus the years of Trump fomenting mistrust of the press, unleashed a torrent of gloating replies to laid-off staffers’ tweets, adding to a bonfire that has burned all week as HuffPost and Gannett also went through layoffs. The left-ward tilt of HuffPo and the aggressive reporting on Trump prompted waves of responses along the lines of “why don’t you do something worthwhile for your next job” or, simply, good riddance. John R. Stanton, senior national correspondent and former Washington bureau chief, and national reporters Tyler Kingkade and Hannah Allam were among those to confirm their departures on Twitter. A BuzzFeed rep did not immediately respond to Deadline’s request for comment on the timing and specifics of today’s exits. This is the third round of cuts at the digital news producer in 14 months, following layoffs in November 2017 and in September. The former consisted of about 100 job losses, mainly in its business unit. Digital media companies continue to be squeezed by advertising titans Google and Facebook, and many of them have also been shrinking their staffs in recent months.<doc-sep>According to new reports, the Internet news company BuzzFeed will lay off about 15 percent of its workers in response to growing financial pressure. BuzzFeed, which produces both light-hearted viral content as well as reporting in its news department, has long been thought of as an Internet media success story. However, there have been major issues for online news companies over the last year or so as many have struggled to keep up with Facebook’s news algorithms and make enough money to support large staffs with small profit margins. The New York Times reports: BuzzFeed, often hailed as the future of publishing and a leading producer of digital content, plans to lay off 15 percent of its work force, or about 200 employees, according to a memo sent to the staff on Wednesday night. … The move is meant to trim costs and maintain growth as the company aims to hit profitability this year. BuzzFeed, which employs over 1,300 people, generated more than $300 million in revenue in 2018. That was a jump of better than 15 percent from the previous year, but the company still loses money. This news comes for BuzzFeed just after they published a major news scoop about Russia that quickly fell apart. Memo from BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti. Story here:https://t.co/qVEBxwv6Ip pic.twitter.com/WFc37dIeY0 — Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) January 23, 2019 The company has cut staff before. In November 2017, it fired about 100 employees. Vice Media, another supposed media success story, also announced their decision to fire 15 percent of its employees in 2018. Many journalists and other commentators shared their thoughts on the BuzzFeed layoffs on social media Wednesday. Fake news is dying. https://t.co/G6pudierjn — Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) January 23, 2019 Brutal week for journalists. On top of the BuzzFeed and Gannett layoffs, a source tells me @HuffPost’s long-rumored layoffs are likely to come tomorrow morning. — Will Oremus (@WillOremus) January 24, 2019 Ugh, so much grim media news today. – Buzzfeed laying off 15% of its staff: https://t.co/lBziNdOKxs – Gannett layoffs across the country: https://t.co/MZsQvCPBAG – Verizon Media (HuffPo, Yahoo) layoffs this week: https://t.co/osAkya8Huu — Laura J. Nelson (@laura_nelson) January 23, 2019 Unions are immensely helpful during shit like this and the best thing Buzzfeed people lucky enough to be unaffected by layoffs could do is start organizing ASAP — Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) January 23, 2019 Thinking about all my friends at @BuzzFeed suffering layoffs tonight. You do some of the best journalism in the business, and you’ve done more than most to keep democracy safe. You deserve better than this. — Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) January 24, 2019<doc-sep>BuzzFeed, often hailed as the future of publishing and a leading producer of digital content, plans to lay off 15 percent of its work force, or around 200 employees, according to a memo sent to the staff on Wednesday night. The company’s management team, led by the chief executive, Jonah Peretti, has been working on the staff cuts over the past few months, two people with knowledge of the plans said. They asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak on the matter. The cuts will affect the international and web content departments, including the news division. Mr. Peretti sent a note to employees at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time with the subject line “Difficult Changes.” “Hello BuzzFeeders,” he wrote. “I’m writing with sad news: we are doing layoffs at BuzzFeed next week. We will be making a 15% overall reduction in headcount across the company. I’m sending this tonight because I wanted you to hear it from me directly instead of from the press.”<doc-sep>
It’s a dark day to work in media. On the heels of news that TechCrunch parent company Verizon Media Group (formerly Oath) would lay off roughly 800 workers, BuzzFeed has announced its own substantial staffing cuts. And though they were anticipated, Gannett also made substantial cuts to newsrooms around the U.S. on Wednesday. In a memo to employees, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti explained that the layoffs would hit next week, reducing its workforce by 15 percent, or about 250 positions. “Over the past few months, we’ve done extensive work examining the trends in our business and the evolving economics of the digital platforms,” Peretti said in the memo. “We’ve developed a good understanding of where we can consolidate our teams, focus in on the content that is working, and achieve the right cost structure to support our multi-revenue model.” Peretti added that he is “confident” that the layoffs would chart a sustainable course of growth for the new media giant — likely one that aims to turn the maturing media company’s revenues into a profit. According to the memo, that means a future in which BuzzFeed could sustain operations without seeking additional rounds of funding. Between its smaller investments and two huge rounds from NBCUniversal, BuzzFeed has raised $500 million over the last decade. The company last raised $200 million in late 2016 from NBCUniversal, which invested a total of $400 million in the media company. BuzzFeed’s other investors include Andreessen Horowitz, RRE Ventures, Hearst Ventures and New Enterprise Associates. Though the company cut 100 jobs in 2017, 2019’s layoffs are BuzzFeed’s most substantial to date. The news comes at an uncomfortable time for the website’s employees, who will have to wait in limbo until early next week for the axe to come down. “This will be a tough week for all of us and I realize it will be much worse for the people losing their jobs,” Peretti said. “To them, I want to say thank you, I’m sorry our work together is ending this way, and I hope we get to work together again in the future.” The full memo from Peretti to staff is embedded below.