Posted on 03/09/2021 10:49:45 AM PST by Red Badger
BuzzFeed acquired HuffPost from Verizon Media in February.
BuzzFeed announced layoffs for the HuffPost newsroom on Tuesday, three weeks after acquiring HuffPost from Verizon Media in February.
Hillary Frey, the site’sexecutive editor, and Louise Roug, the executive editor for international, will be departing in the restructuring effort.
HuffPost Canada will also shutter operations later this month.
A deal between BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Verizon Media was first made public in November. Verizon Media stated at the time that BuzzFeed and HuffPost would operate as “separate, distinct news organizations” with their own websites and editorial staff while BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti led the combined company.
Peretti told staffers that the decision, which will affect 47 U.S. employees, was made in order to “fast-track the path to profitability” for HuffPost, enabling the company to break even this year and eventually turn a profit.
Peretti co-founded HuffPost in 2005 with the site’s namesake, Arianna Huffington, along with Andrew Breitbart and Kenneth Lerer, before starting BuzzFeed the following year.
The HuffPost Union, organized as part of the Writers Guild of America, East, slammed the restructuring effort in a statement:
Today, we learned that 33 of our colleagues — nearly 30% of our unit — will be laid off. We are devastated and infuriated, particularly after an exhausting year of covering a pandemic and working from home. This is also happening less than a month after HuffPost was acquired by BuzzFeed. We never got a fair shot to prove our worth. These layoffs reiterate the importance of forming a union and advocating for our colleagues. We are glad that we are protected by a collective bargaining agreement and that our colleagues will receive severance. Our union will continue fighting to make HuffPost a more just and equitable workplace, including pushing for clear and accountable commitments to hiring and promoting more people of color and for transparency around pay equity.
Mark Schoofs, BuzzFeed’s editor-in-chief, said last year that a search for a new HuffPost editor-in-chief would begin immediately, and Peretti said Tuesday that the search had reached its final stages.
Frey has led the U.S. newsroom since Lydia Polgreen resigned as editor-in-chief one year ago to join the 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 anticipate being able to make an offer and an announcement in the coming weeks.”
A small victory, but it is a victory.
Now they can find “better jobs”, right Joe?
Solar panels or coding.
Meanwhile HuffPo is short-time because Buzzfeed will implode before the mid-terms.
Are they soliciting suggestions on who should go?
They are searching for an editor in chief for the Huffpost.
I’m sure laying off 47 then hiring and paying a big shot LIB editor in chief 7 figures is going to go over so well with the remaining staff.
How about coding Solar Panels.
Wonderful news!
L3rn2C0d3
They should keep their cooking section. It’s the only thing they do that isn’t trash.
BuzzFEED?
BuzzSAW is more like it.
I APPROVE.
I’ve been to Buttfeed offices here in L.A. since 2013. Probably the most condescending bunch of lefty aholes aside from CNN. I’m almost sure they’re trying to get rid of the LEAST leftard of the staff.
It’s hilarious Watching them complain about a “exhaustive” year of covering Covid from home. It must’ve been so difficult to regurgitate the exact same talking points that every other outlet was covering And re-posting it with some slightly different verbiage. Poor things.
So the least hypocritical, least offensive, least assclownish will get terminated then? Best and blightest.
Acquisitions are done on the expectation that redundancies and synergies will result in enough cost savings to pay for the deal. You don’t need two accounting or HR departments for example, and the acquiring company usually keeps and expands theirs while the other one goes away.
Why would Buzzfeed pay people to not ask questions?
Initially, they tell everyone their jobs are safe and just proceed as normal because they don't want to cause a panic or morale issues among the workforce.
But after the new management comes on board and get the lay of the land, they can't avoid eliminating duplication and redundant employees.
After all, most mergers are to save one company from bankruptcy and to accomplish that, jobs, the most costly of all corporate expenses, will have to be trimmed.
I learned to get my resume polished up and sent out as soon as word of a merger was announced. Best to be looking before the floor falls out from under you when it's too late to find a lifesaver.
The HuffPost staff is naive if they didn't see this coming.
” I’m almost sure they’re trying to get rid of the LEAST leftard of the staff.”
And the least leftard is still a leftard. Enjoy the win.
“Hillary Frey, the site’sexecutive editor”
Is she the site’s executive editor, or the site sexecutive editor?
Cuz the second one sounds intriguing...
Great, now they’ll be running around in Virginia Hats bitching about men nonstop.
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