BuzzFeed announces deep cuts to HuffPost staff after acquisition

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

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

HuffPost Canada will also close operations later this month.

An agreement between BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Verizon Media was first made public in November. Verizon Media stated at the time that BuzzFeed and HuffPost would operate as “different, separate news organizations” with their own websites and editorial staff, while BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti ran the combined company.

Peretti told employees that the decision, which will affect 47 U.S. employees, was made to “speed up the path to profitability” of HuffPost, which allowed the company to equalize this year, and eventually make a profit.

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

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

Today we learned that 33 of our colleagues (almost 30% of our unit) will be fired. We are devastated and enraged, especially after a grueling year of covering a pandemic and working from home. This also happens less than a month after BuzzFeed acquired HuffPost. We have never come up with a fair plan to prove our worth. These dismissals reiterate the importance of forming a union and defending our colleagues. We are glad that we are protected by a collective bargaining agreement and that our colleagues are receiving the separation. Our union will continue to strive to make HuffPost a fairer and more equitable job, including a clear and responsible commitment to hiring and promoting more people of color and transparency around pay equity.

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

Frey has led the U.S. newsroom since Lydia Polgreen resigned as editor-in-chief a year ago to join podcasting company Gimlet Media.

“The group of finalists we consider is extremely strong, diverse and committed to the future of HuffPost,” Peretti said. “We anticipate being able to make an offer and an announcement in the coming weeks.”