NEW YORK (AP) – Buzzfeed announced on Tuesday that it had laid off 45 reporters, editors and producers from the newly acquired HuffPost.
HuffPost executive editor Hillary Frey, the website’s executive editor, and executive editor Louise Roug also resigned because of the layoffs, Buzzfeed said.
The layoffs come just three weeks after Buzzfeed acquired HuffPost, the communication medium founded in 2005 as Verizon Media’s The Huffington Post.
“We never had a fair chance to prove our worth,” said the HuffPost union in a statement.
According to excerpts released by the company, Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti told employees at a meeting that “we will begin to restructure HuffPost today to accelerate its path to profitability. Unfortunately, this includes staff reductions, and several talented colleagues will be laid off in the next few days. ”
Peretti said that “losses last year exceeded $ 20 million and would be similar this year without intervention. Although BuzzFeed is a profitable company, we do not have the resources to support another two years of losses. ”
HuffPost Canada will be closed during the restructuring.
The union said the layoffs included almost 30% of its members.
“We are devastated and furious, especially after an exhausting year covering a pandemic and working from home,” said the union.
Many of the dismissed employees lamented the loss of their jobs on social media after periods of many years and opposed the way they were informed, saying that the password to enter the remote meeting was a variation of “spring has come”, leaving them amazed for what would come later.
Rowaida Abdelaziz said it was “an absolutely cruel and brutal day at HuffPost. I’m speechless. “