(New York) The BuzzFeed News website, symbol of the internet’s new media, will close as part of a cost savings plan, BuzzFeed director Jonah Peretti announced Thursday in an internal memo. AFP became aware.
“We are reducing our workforce by approximately 15% today…and we are beginning the process of closing BuzzFeed News,” a news site separate from the entertainment site BuzzFeed.com wrote Peretti in a memo to staff. .
“While layoffs are taking place in nearly every division, we have determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a stand-alone organization,” the BuzzFeed director added.
15% of the workforce represents approximately 1200 people out of a total of 8000 for BuzzFeed.
Jonah Peretti clarified that “HuffPost and BuzzFeed.com have indicated that they will be opening a number of positions to BuzzFeed News members.”
Launched in 2006, BuzzFeed is considered the benchmark for the new generation of free news sites steeped in pop culture and built on social networks, whose economic model was almost entirely based on advertising.
BuzzFeed stock was down more than 20% Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange after the announcement.
