BuzzFeed News editor in chief is stepping down as company trims workforce
Summary
- Digital-media business posts 18% quarterly revenue growth in first report as publicly traded company
BuzzFeed Inc.said it expected revenue to decline in the current quarter, and it is reducing its workforce by 1.7%, as the digital-media business issued its first earnings report as a publicly traded company.
BuzzFeed founder and Chief Executive Jonah Peretti said on Tuesday’s earnings call that the company was looking to boost profitability at its news division, BuzzFeed News, by reducing head count and giving priority to “coverage of the biggest news of the day, culture and entertainment, celebrity and life on the internet."
BuzzFeed News Editor-in-Chief Mark Schoofs said in a note to staff Tuesday that he was leaving the company, as was his deputy, Tom Namako.
“The company has subsidized BuzzFeed News for many years," Mr. Schoofs wrote in his note. The next phase for the news division, he said, is to accelerate its timeline to profitability and undergo a strategic shift. “That will require BuzzFeed News to once again shrink in size." He said the company was looking to reduce head count through voluntary buyouts, not layoffs.
A BuzzFeed spokesman said that on top of the buyouts at its news division, the company is cutting approximately 25 jobs elsewhere, or 1.7% of BuzzFeed’s overall workforce.
BuzzFeed, which beyond its namesake site houses the Tasty, Complex and Huffpost brands, on Tuesday posted fourth-quarter revenue of $145.7 million, up 18% from a year earlier. Net profit rose 25% to $40.4 million, boosted in part by a $21.4 million tax benefit.
The company said it expected first-quarter revenue to be down by low-single-digit percentage terms from a year earlier as its audiences spend less time on Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook and advertising spending from customers including retailers and consumer-goods companies is off to a slower start this quarter.
BuzzFeed’s stock was up 0.8% in early trading Tuesday. Shares are down by nearly half since their first day of trading in early December, after BuzzFeed merged with a special-purpose acquisition company.
BuzzFeed in June announced plans to go public by merging with 890 5th Avenue Partners Inc., a SPAC. The deal gave Mr. Peretti voting control of the company and cash to fuel additional deal making.
For the entirety of 2021, BuzzFeed said revenue was up 24% from 2020. Then it announced the SPAC deal, BuzzFeed said it expected sales to rise about 25% annually through 2024.
BuzzFeed said the largest part of its fourth-quarter revenue came from advertising, which accounted for $69.1 million and was up 24% from a year earlier. The fastest-growing segment was content revenue, which the company describes as payments it gets from clients for products such as branded quizzes and sponsored content. The segment, which also includes revenue from film and TV projects, brought in $59.9 million, up 33% from a year earlier.
BuzzFeed’s e-commerce business, which generates revenue by recommending and selling products online, declined 26% to $16.7 million. The company last year had warned that slowing commerce growth would continue in the fourth quarter, as a jump in online shopping during the pandemic lets up and commerce partners grapple with labor shortages and global supply-chain challenges.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text
