BuzzFeed announces deep cuts to the HuffPost team after the acquisition

BuzzFeed announced layoffs to the HuffPost newsroom on Tuesday, three weeks after acquiring HuffPost from Verizon Media in February.

Hillary Frey, executive editor of the site, and Louise Roug, international executive editor, will go on the restructuring effort.

HuffPost Canada will also end operations later this month.

A deal between BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Verizon Media was first released in November. Verizon Media stated at the time that BuzzFeed and HuffPost would operate as “separate and distinct news organizations” with their own websites and editorial staff, while BuzzFeed’s CEO, Jonah Peretti, led the combined company.

Peretti told employees that the decision, which will affect 47 American employees, was made to “accelerate the path to profitability” for HuffPost, allowing the company to tie this year and eventually make a profit.

Peretti co-founded HuffPost in 2005 with the website’s namesake, Arianna Huffington, along with Andrew Breitbart and Kenneth Lerer, before starting BuzzFeed the following year.

HuffPost Union, organized as part of the Writers Guild of America, East, criticized the restructuring effort in a statement:

Today, we learn that 33 of our colleagues – almost 30% of our unit – will be fired. We are devastated and enraged, especially after an exhausting year covering a pandemic and working from home. This is also happening less than a month after HuffPost was acquired by BuzzFeed. We never had a fair chance to prove our worth. These layoffs reiterate the importance of forming a union and defending our colleagues. We are happy that we are protected by a collective bargaining agreement and that our colleagues receive compensation. Our union will continue to strive to make HuffPost a fairer and more equitable workplace, including pushing for clear and responsible commitments to hire and promote more people of color and for transparency around equal pay.

Mark Schoofs, editor in chief of BuzzFeed, said last year that a search for a new HuffPost editor-in-chief would begin immediately, and Peretti said on Tuesday that the search has reached its final stages.

Frey has led the US newsroom since Lydia Polgreen resigned as editor-in-chief a 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,” said Peretti. “We expect to be able to make an offer and an announcement in the coming weeks.”