The $15.7 million sale follows a big runnup in BuzzFeed’s shares following the announcement it will use AI to produce content
BuzzFeed will cut about 12% of its workforce to rein in costs, the online media company said Tuesday, as it joins a growing number of U.S. firms that have taken similar measures in anticipation of a potential economic downturn.
The company still loses money, but its revenue rose 20% in the third quarter. Investors who want to own a piece can do so around Dec. 6.
The digital media companies that once seemed to have a lock on the future are making plans to get bigger and pay back their investors.
BuzzFeed hopes the move will put it in a better position to capture lucrative digital ad dollars against much bigger rivals like Google, Facebook and Amazon. The company, founded by Jonah Peretti in 2006 and initially known for listicles and online quizzes, has established itself as a serious contender in the news business, this year winning a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.
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The digital publisher is said to be on the verge of announcing a SPAC merger that would take the company public.
BuzzFeed slashed 47 positions at HuffPost in Tuesday in one of the company’s first actions since acquiring the rival news site in a deal with Verizon Media just three weeks ago. BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said Tuesday that the cuts were part of an effort to “fast-track the path to profitability” for the newly acquired property.
Two titans of the digital publishing space will soon merge, as BuzzFeed is acquiring HuffPost as part of a larger deal with Verizon Media. The newsrooms of HuffPost and BuzzFeed News will remain separate, though HuffPost’s editor-in-chief (currently an open role) will report to BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief Mark Schoof’s according to an email Schoofs sent to BuzzFeed staff.
The layoffs came swiftly last week. At Vice Media, 155 people lost their jobs. Quartz laid off 80. Condé Nast, publisher of glossy magazines such as Vogue, cut 100 people. And as BuzzFeed furloughed staffers at its overseas divisions, its U.S.-based staffers braced for similar cuts. For those who had been watching local newspapers struggle in the era of digitization, these announcements were sobering: Even the media business’s most savvy, innovative and glamorous players are hurting.
Comscore today announced that it has signed a renewal agreement to provide BuzzFeed with digital audience measurement. This one-year deal means BuzzFeed will have continued and expanded access to Comscore’s Media Ratings solution, including video and YouTube measurement tracking.
Revenue is up at the site founded by Jonah Peretti, who says he is “open” to being “part of a larger company” as a top editor departs.
From the posting of the dossier to the publication of a story now in dispute, BuzzFeed News is learning about the perils of the chase.
Vice, Vox and BuzzFeed, among other companies that once heralded the dawn of a new media age, are now grappling with decidedly old-media problems.
BuzzFeed is laying off around 100 employees as it reorganizes the business team that leads its advertising sales efforts. The digital publisher’s entertainment division is also being rebranded as BuzzFeed Studios.
Matthew Henick, a onetime teenage ringtone magnate, is leading the company away from popular shorts toward deals with production studios.
BuzzFeed is getting into the morning TV show business, kicking off an hour-long streaming show on Twitter on Monday, AM to DM, which launches at 10 a.m. ET for the later-waking millennials it’s targeting, and “BuzzFeed brass thinks will be a more authentic, modern version of the television classic.”
After eschewing banner ads for years, BuzzFeed is finally embracing them. BuzzFeed will introduce display ads that will be bought and sold using third-party ad technology on a global basis. The move is a bid to tap into its scale and monetize its owned-and-operated platforms more effectively.
On Thursday, Ron Lamprecht, NBCU EVP of business development and digital distribution, detailed NBC’s recent efforts around digital, including work with Snapchat and investments in BuzzFeed and Vox. In particular, Lamprecht discussed Snapchat and how, while monetization on the platform remains a challenge, NBC is benefiting from its work with the ephemeral social media service so far.
BuzzFeed and NBCUniversal revealed plans to intertwine their ad sales and production, as part of NBCU’s additional $200 million strategic investment in the digital media darling.
Earlier reports that NBCUniversal had invested a second $200 million in BuzzFeed after an initial $200 million investment are true, NBCU confirmed today. With the new funding, the companies will extend their ad sales relationship and collaborate on the branded content front,.
A year after making a major investment in BuzzFeed, NBCUniversal is doing it again. Sources say Comcast’s TV and movie arm is finalizing a deal that will put around $200 million into the digital publisher, at a valuation of around $1.7 billion. Those are roughly the same numbers NBCU used last year, when it first invested in BuzzFeed — except that deal gave BuzzFeed a post-money valuation of $1.5 billion.
Andrew Kaczynski and his team, which has made headlines unearthing audio and video on the campaign trail, leave BuzzFeed short-handed in the final weeks before the election.
Buying BuzzFeed Could Help Revive Viacom
Viacom is the only major media company that hasn’t made a big digital acquisition. But a management shake-up currently going on could change Viacom’s approach to the internet, with possible acquisition targets that could include BuzzFeed, according to sources. While the publisher has made no public plans to sell and is likely to seek an IPO next year, a proposed new slate of board directors at Viacom could alter that calculus.
Facebook is paying more than $50 million to 140 video creators, including legacy publishers, digital media companies and celebrities. BuzzFeed leads the pack with a $3.05 million deal over one year, with the New York Times and CNN not far behind, according to a document obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
BuzzFeed is gearing up a new video news initiative out of its New York offices to be led by Henry Goldman, who is moving over from running the non-scripted projects at its L.A.-based BuzzFeed Motion Pictures. The new unit “will be the center of a Venn diagram” between BuzzFeed’s news and Motion Pictures divisions, and it will be toying with new formats to see what catches on best with viewers.
The new initiatives with Mashable, Tastemade, Buzzfeed and Vox are designed to expand NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises’ efforts to reach the “Generation M” — mobile, multicultural, millennials — with original content tailored to their cultural interests.
And Pandora to digital video and BuzzFeed to Snapchat. A new study from the VAB claims to make these cross-platform comparisons buyers have been craving for years.
The network is celebrating Leap Day partnering with American Express to create custom show content to add to the broadcasts of Blindspot, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Voice and Today. In addition, BuzzFeed will create social content around the shows to drive tune-in.
