BuzzFeed announces deep cuts to HuffPost staff after acquisition

BuzzFeed announced the dismissal of the HuffPost news office on Tuesday, three weeks after HuffPost was acquired by Verizon Media.

Hillary Frey, the site’s executive editor, and Louise Roug, the editor – in – chief of International, are embarking on the restructuring effort.

HuffPost Canada will also be operational later this month.

An agreement between BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Verizon Media was first announced in November. Verizon Media at the time stated that BuzzFeed and HuffPost would act as ‘separate, separate news organizations’ with their own websites and editorial staff, while BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti led the joint venture.

Peretti told staff members that the decision, which will affect 47 U.S. employees, was made to create a “quick path to profitability” for HuffPost, which will enable the company to level up this year and ultimately make a profit.

Peretti co-founded HuffPost with Andrew Breitbart and Kenneth Lerer in 2005, along with namesake Arianna Huffington, before launching BuzzFeed.

The HuffPost Union, organized as part of the Writers Guild of America, East, expressed the restructuring effort in a statement:

Today we learned that 33 of our colleagues – almost 30% of our unit – will be fired. We are devastated and furious, especially after an exhausting year of covering up a pandemic and working from home. It also happens less than a month after HuffPost was acquired by BuzzFeed. We never got a good chance to prove our worth. These dismissals reiterate the importance of founding a union and pleading for our colleagues. We are glad that we are protected by a collective bargaining agreement and that our colleagues will receive separation. Our union will continue to fight to make HuffPost a fairer and more equitable workplace, including the pursuit of clear and accountable commitments to hire and promote more people of color, and on transparency around payroll.

Mark Schoofs, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, said last year that a search for a new editor-in-chief of HuffPost would begin immediately, and Peretti said Tuesday that the search was to the final stage.

Frey has led the US news agency since Lydia Polgreen resigned as editor-in-chief a year ago to join podcasting company Gimlet Media.

“The group of finalists we are considering is extremely strong, diverse and committed to the future of HuffPost,” Peretti said. “We expect to be able to make an offer and an announcement in the coming weeks.”

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