This reporting appears as one of several scoops featured in this weekâs edition of Confider, the media newsletter that pulls back the curtain to reveal whatâs really going on inside the worldâs most powerful navel-gazing industry. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here.
Major changes are underway at BuzzFeed News, including Editor in Chief Mark Schoofs stepping down from the helm and giving way to company-wide layoffs.
Early Tuesday morning, the announcement was shared internally, ahead of an earnings report with expectations the company would be in the red during the first quarter of 2022.
âThe next phase is for BuzzFeed News is to accelerate the timeline to profitability and undergo a strategic shift so that we will get there by the end of 2023,â Schoofs wrote in a company-wide email obtained and reviewed by Confider. âThat will require BuzzFeed News to once again shrink in size.â
Schoofs continued in the email by stating that he hoped buyouts would occur, instead of layoffs.
âWe hope to reduce our size through voluntary buy-outs, not layoffs,â he penned. âAlso: This is not your fault.â
Like what youâre reading? Subscribe to the Confider newsletter here and have The Daily Beast media teamâs stellar reporting sent straight to your inbox every Monday night.
Elsewhere in the email, Schoofs wrote that BuzzFeed News will set out under new leadership with the specific goal of being âfinancially stable.â âUnder Jonahâs leadership, the company has subsidized BuzzFeed News for many years,â while emphasizing the ânext phase is for BuzzFeed News is to accelerate the timeline to profitability and undergo a strategic shift so that we will get there by the end of 2023.â
The newsroom cuts will impact around 1.7 percent of the shop, BuzzFeedâs CEO and co-founder Jonah Peretti said. Other changes to the newsroom masthead include deputy editor in chief Tom Namako and executive editor of investigations Ariel Kaminer departing the company.
âBuzzFeed News will need to get smaller,â Peretti wrote in his own memo to staff.
During the earnings call, BuzzFeed posted revenue of $398 million, which came in short of a $520 million projection shared with investors. The earnings shortfall indicates that the digital publishing behemoth failed to hit its mark by 31 percent.
BuzzFeed saw itself in a less than ideal financial situation throughout the pandemic, leaving management to cut salaries by upward of 25 percent in March 2020.
âStaffers in the lowest bracketâwhich includes anyone making under $65,000 annuallyâwould experience a 5 percent reduction, while those making between $65,000-$90,000 would experience a 7 percent cut,â The Daily Beast reported at the time. âOther staff would take nearly a 10-percent pay cut, while executives would take between 14-to-25-percent in pay reduction.â
Subscribe to the Confider newsletter here and have The Daily Beast media teamâs stellar reporting sent straight to your inbox every Monday night.