BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Tasty are set to lay off about 180 staffers, a move that cuts deep into a company that had about 510 employees before the reductions. The layoffs mark the first major restructuring step under Byron Allen’s control of BuzzFeed.
The timing matters because Allen only took a 52 percent majority stake and the CEO role from Jonah Peretti in May, in a $120 million agreement that made him the company’s new power center. About a third of the pre-cut workforce is now on the line, and the company has made clear that the changes are meant to reshape the business quickly rather than gradually.
That is the sharpest sign yet that Allen is moving to impose the same hard calculus he has described elsewhere in his media holdings. He has said he invests to stabilize, protect and grow businesses, but he has also said he rightsizes when spending declines and that a media company in transition has to change its approach. BuzzFeed leadership, meanwhile, has framed the cuts as necessary to put the business on a path to profitable and sustainable growth.
The numbers behind the decision are grim. BuzzFeed reported a nearly 20 percent year-over-year drop in advertising revenue in its latest quarter, along with a net loss of $15.1 million, wider than the $12.5 million loss a year earlier. The company had already warned in March that there was substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern, and four months later Allen put in about $26 million to stabilize, protect and grow the business. BuzzFeed is set to report its next earnings disclosure on August 4.
The unresolved question is not whether the company is changing — it already has — but which jobs and teams are being removed in the 180-person cut. BuzzFeed leadership said BuzzFeed Studios will operate as its own entity consolidated under BuzzFeed, Inc., and said Allen sees opportunity across BuzzFeed, HuffPost, Tasty and BuzzFeed Studios. For now, the layoff count is fixed, but the map of who is actually leaving is still not public.
