BuzzFeed News

What did it do?

BuzzFeed News was the news division BuzzFeed set up in December 2011. Growing under editor-in-chief Ben Smith, who came from Politico, it focused on investigative journalism and exclusives. In July 2018 it split off from BuzzFeed's main site and moved to its own domain.

Why did it shut down?

Although the division won prestigious awards, it never became a profitable business for its parent company. In January 2019, 15 per cent of the staff were laid off and the national news desk closed; in 2020 its news operations in the UK and Australia were shut down. In March 2022 further staff cuts came in pursuit of profitability, and senior editors left. On 20 April 2023 BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti announced that BuzzFeed News would be shut down as part of company-wide downsizing. The company consolidated its news operations at HuffPost, which it had bought in 2020.

The story

In 2021 BuzzFeed News won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for its stories exposing internment camps for Uyghur Muslims in China's Xinjiang region. That the news division of a company known for viral content should win one of journalism's most prestigious awards was an achievement many in the industry had not expected. Two years later, the same division was shut down.

BuzzFeed News was born as a section of BuzzFeed in December 2011, when Ben Smith arrived from Politico as editor-in-chief. In 2013 Pulitzer winner Mark Schoofs was brought in from ProPublica to lead the investigations unit. An academic study published in 2017 found that BuzzFeed News largely adhered to established journalistic norms. The division carried out major investigations such as the FinCEN Files and collected honours including the George Polk Award and the National Magazine Award. In July 2018 it split off from BuzzFeed's main site and moved to its own domain.

The division's most controversial decision was publishing the unverified Steele dossier on Donald Trump in January 2017. The decision drew harsh criticism and led to at least two libel lawsuits; Smith defended publication on the grounds of newsworthiness. On the cost side, meanwhile, the picture was getting tougher: in January 2019, 15 per cent of the staff were laid off and the national news desk closed, and in 2020 its news operations in the UK and Australia were shut down. Smith moved to The New York Times in May 2020 and was succeeded by Schoofs.

In March 2022 the company made further cuts in pursuit of profitability; Schoofs and senior editors left, and half of the roughly 100 reporters were offered buyouts. On 20 April 2023 BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti announced that BuzzFeed News would be shut down as part of company-wide downsizing affecting 15 per cent of employees; around 180 people were expected to lose their jobs. The site stopped publishing new content on 5 May 2023, and the company consolidated its news operations at HuffPost, which it had bought in 2020.

The BuzzFeed News story is a reminder that journalistic success is not a business model on its own. Awards and influential reporting earned the brand prestige; but with no independent source of revenue set up to cover the division's costs, it was also the item cut in the first wave of downsizing.

Lessons for founders

• Build the revenue model that will fund quality journalism (subscriptions, membership, licensing) separately from the traffic model; winning awards does not cover a division's costs.
• A division that lives as a cost centre inside a corporate group is the first item to be cut in the first wave of downsizing; measure the division's own revenue and report it regularly.
• Tie the decision to publish a contested document to a clear verification standard; libel lawsuits can quickly strain the budget of a small newsroom.

Sources

1. BuzzFeed News (Wikipedia)
2. BuzzFeed News will shut down (CNN, 2023-04-20)
3. BuzzFeed News Is Shutting Down, Company Laying Off 180 Staffers (Variety, 2023-04-20)
4. BuzzFeed's First Round of Layoffs Puts an End to Its National News Desk (The New York Times, 2019-01-25)

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