Buzzfeed has announced redundancies worldwide, with 20 UK staff affected including in its news operation.
As many as 100 staff are affected in the US, mainly falling on commercial side of the company, the Wall Street Journal has said.
Buzzfeed reports that 20 job losses are expected in the UK across business (ad sales) and news (journalists). Buzzfeed has around 40 editorial staff in the UK.
Buzzfeed has approximately 1,700 employees worldwide.
In a message to staff, Buzzfeed chief executive Jonah Peretti said: “As our strategy evolves, we need to evolve our organisation too – particularly our Business team, which was built to support direct sold advertising but will need to bring in different, more diverse expertise to support these new lines of business.
“Unfortunately this means we have to say goodbye to some talented colleagues whose work has helped us tremendously. In the US we are restructuring select functions of the Business team, including sales, creative, client services, ad solutions and marketing, to better support our diversifying revenue model.
“In the UK we are realigning the organisation to focus on content for global audiences and our core UK news beats – investigations, politics, media and social justice – and intend to make reductions across buzz, commercial, news and admin as a result.”
In the US, Greg Coleman is stepping down as Buzzfeed’s president to take on a senior advisory role, which he had previously held.
Buzzfeed UK reported a pre-tax loss of £3.3m last year despite more than doubling its turnover to £20.5m on the previous year, full financial figures published for the first time by the company last month revealed.
Said Peretti to staff today: “Throughout 2017, we continued to grow our revenue and our business, and we know that digital media has a bright future – especially for leading companies with the greatest scale, the strongest tech and the best teams.
“We are well positioned because we will continue to innovate and manage our operations with the focus required to succeed in a tough marketplace. Our new structure will ensure that Buzzfeed continues to grow, transform our industry and impact the lives of millions of people.”
A Buzzfeed spokesperson said: “We’re restructuring our UK operation to put it on a faster path to profitability, and expand its focus to include news and entertainment reporting for our global audience.”
Picture: Reuters/Brendan McDermid
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