- HuffPost is laying off 47 staff members in the United States and closing its Canada unit, employees learned Tuesday.
- BuzzFeed completed its acquisition of HuffPost in February.
- The restructuring is likely to extend to other HuffPost offices worldwide as well.
- Visit the Insider Business Department for more stories.
Get rid of HuffPost, a few weeks after digital rival BuzzFeed acquired the publisher.
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said in a staff meeting on Tuesday that according to BuzzFeed’s spokesperson, 47 people will be fired in the US. The company also closes HuffPost Canada and moves away from local coverage in HuffPost Australia.
Hillary Frey, the executive editor of HuffPost, and Louise Roug, the editor-in-chief of international, decided to leave the company, the spokeswoman said.
The spokesman added that consultations had begun in Australia and the United Kingdom to suggest cuts there as well.
According to HuffPost’s losses last year, they exceeded $ 20 million and would be the same without action, Peretti said, according to the person at the meeting. He added that the goal was for HuffPost to break even this year.
“When BuzzFeed lost too much money, we adjusted our strategy and our size,” Peretti said, according to attendees. “We focused on diversifying our revenue streams, lowering our costs and being profitable. It was hard, painful work, but now we have a stronger business than ever before.”
A memorandum sent to HuffPost union staff in the US states that 33 members of the HuffPost union will be affected. HuffPost’s union had about 130 members, while the company had about 250 employees in November.
According to a company spokesperson, HuffPost is in the final stages of its search for a new editor-in-chief and will announce this in the coming weeks.
By the end of the process, HuffPost’s news office will remain larger than BuzzFeed News, the spokesman said.
“The restructuring we announced today is not a short-term cost-cutting exercise. We are moving to a model that will enable HuffPost to level up and eventually be profitable this year, and that requires both cost management through restructuring, along with revenue acceleration, which is managed by BuzzFeed’s business organization, ”the BuzzFeed spokesman said.
BuzzFeed announced last year that it wants to acquire HuffPost from Verizon Media. In addition to the total transaction, Verizon made an unknown cash investment in BuzzFeed and became a minority shareholder in the company. The deal was closed in February.
The BuzzFeed-HuffPost commitment has fueled speculation that further digital media consolidation will follow soon. Merger and acquisition activities in space have already begun to heat up. In January, Discovery-backed Group Nine Media – behind websites including Thrillist, NowThis and The Dodo – formed a special fundraising venture to raise money for other digital media businesses.
The author of this story has previously worked at BuzzFeed News.