BuzzFeed News is shutting down.
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti sent out an email to staff Thursday morning saying the decision is part of a company-wide workplace reduction.
"I am writing to announce some difficult news," Peretti wrote. "We are reducing our workforce by approximately 15% today across our Business, Content, Tech and Admin teams, and beginning the process of closing BuzzFeed News."
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Peretti said that he had "overinvest(ed)" in BuzzFeed News because he loved its work and that the company "can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a standalone organization."
"This made me slow to accept that the big platforms wouldn’t provide the distribution or financial support required to support premium, free journalism purpose-built for social media," he wrote.
The company will concentrate its news efforts on HuffPost and have a number of open roles for BuzzFeed News members in HuffPost and BuzzFeed.com, per Peretti.
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"Moving forward, we will have a single news brand in HuffPost, which is profitable, with a loyal direct front page audience," Peretti wrote.
Peretti said BuzzFeed will engage with the News Guild about cost-reduction plans and how union members may be affected.
