![]() To gain and keep an audience, the media industry would also have to understand the distribution channels through which they reached their readers, and adapt their work to fit. Its most obvious legacy in media was demonstrating that good writing alone wasn’t sufficient to draw traffic. Many of the tributes are exit-interview-like dispatches from dismissed employees and those who remain focused on the site’s legacy and quality of the content - how BuzzFeed defined the voice of the internet since it began aggressively expanding in 2012 how BuzzFeed often took a chance on staffers without an extensive body of work who were nonetheless good at harnessing the power of the internet. They join a cohort of other online content farms, like Yahoo and HuffPost, that also employ hundreds of staffers and mix lighter and heavier fare, just without BuzzFeed’s new-kid-in-town aura. BuzzFeed is not shutting down, but it has been hollowed out. Whole sections of the site’s news division have been eliminated (on the day it was eliminated, BuzzFeed’s LGBT section asked “ Does LGBT Media Have a Future?“). Longtime veterans - who helped define the site’s ethos as it grew into a global force and who seemed immune to layoffs - have gotten the ax. The era of BuzzFeed as a freewheeling, experimental online playground has ended. On Monday evening, BuzzFeed relented and agreed to the payouts. (BuzzFeed’s workforce is not unionized and Peretti has, in the past, warded off any efforts by telling employees that managers are their best advocates.) BuzzFeed’s livestreamed morning show, AM2DM, used the top of this morning’s show to blast management for its treatment of employees. More than 550 BuzzFeed employees signed a petition calling on the company to pay out the unused time. ![]() ![]() For many who were laid off, that unused time off could be worth weeks of pay. The company also initially declined to pay out unused paid time off unless the affected employee lives in California, where the payout is legally required. Some found out they had been laid off while on vacation or remote assignment. Following the leaked news of impending cuts and Peretti’s confirmation, the dismissals have been staggered over a number of days, leaving employees in limbo and anxious to learn their fates. The layoffs, to understate it just a little, have not been handled well. That’s not unusual for media start-ups, but after more than a decade, investors seem to be getting impatient and want the operation to cut costs and get in the black. While BuzzFeed has brought in significant revenue as its star has risen, it still isn’t making money. ![]() The layoffs, according to an email sent to staff by company CEO Jonah Peretti, are intended to help the company turn a profit. The cuts aim to eliminate 15 percent of the company’s operating budget, amounting to roughly 200 layoffs spread across the site’s many departments, including the news division, the non-journalistic editorial department responsible for lists and quizzes, and the creative department that worked with advertisers. Last week, news leaked that BuzzFeed, the site that largely ushered in the era of “viral media,” was planning a significant number of layoffs. An employee works on a laptop at BuzzFeed headquarters, Decemin New York City.
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