Three weeks after finalizing the deal to purchase HuffPost from Verizon Media, BuzzFeed announced layoffs for the HuffPost. The latest wave of layoffs will affect 47 employees based in the United States and those in Canada as BuzzFeed will be shutting down HuffPost Canada later this month.
Last year, HuffPost’s losses totaled around $20 million, and to fast track the path to profitability, which is why they decided to layoff employees and shut down various sister sites.
“Though BuzzFeed is a profitable company, we don’t have the resources to support another two years of losses,” BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said. “We want to ensure the homepage remains a top destination on the internet. We also want to maintain high traffic, preserve your most powerful journalism, lean more deeply into politics and breaking news, and build a stronger business for affiliate revenue and shopping content.”
Although some HuffPost sites struggled financially, staffers blamed Verizon Media for the lack of resources to promote the site and its content.
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
