Why is BuzzFeed News shutting down? Hilarious memes erupt amid latest report

Jonah Peretti, CEO of BuzzFeed, Inc.BuzzFeed News, announced on April 20, 2023, that BuzzFeedNews is officially shutting down. Peretti said that the sudden shutdown has happened to the financial challenges news outlets have faced in the past few years as the parent company continued to "overinvest." The agency won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 2021 for its coverage of Xinjiang's Uyghur Muslim concentration camps.

In his company-wide memo announcing that the news department is getting discontinued, Peretti said:

"While layoffs are occurring across nearly every division, we’ve determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a standalone organization."

When netizens found out about the news, they had some drastic reactions to it, with some even saying that people were tired of fake news and propaganda. Others said that it was terrible news as they had appreciated the publication's coverage of certain events, and also because several people were going to lose their jobs.

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BuzzFeed News to be shuttered amidst all financial shortcomings and challenges

In a company-wide memo, Jonah Peretti stated the various challenges the company had been facing lately. He told his staffers that the company had faced several challenges in the last few years. He mentioned some of them including the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, a tech recession, a tough economy, and platform shifts.

Other issues he said that the company faced were "a fading SPAC market that yielded less capital, a declining stock market, a decelerating digital advertising market, and ongoing audience shifts."

Despite all these challenges, Jonah took the blame for being unable to handle the shortcomings, which led to layoffs and shuttering of the news department. The memo also mentioned that he had "overinvested" in the company's news arm, which ultimately became the reason behind the decision.

He added:

"I made the decision to overinvest in BuzzFeed News because I love their work and mission so much. This made me slow to accept that the big platforms wouldn’t provide the distribution or financial support required to support premium, free journalism purpose-built for social media.”

Peretti also confirmed that the internet media company is letting go of its 15% workforce, around 180 employees. However, new roles might be created for a select number of news staffers at BuzzFeed and The Huffington Post, and News Guild will be approached for cost-cutting plans.

After shuttering the news wing, he also announced that the company's focus on news coverage would be exclusively on The Huffington Post. It is a profitable and has a loyal fanbase. Only the employees, who weren't impacted by the mass firing, received the memo from Jonah Peretti.

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Netizens lambast the renowned media company with memes after its news wing got shuttered

The shutting down of the well-reputed is unfortunate for many, especially the publication's audience, which has often been perceived as left-leaning. However, the development has given an opportunity to those whose ideology doesn't align with the outlet, as many took to social media to troll the media company.

Tweeting about various "listicles" published by the outlet in the past few years, many took jibes.

While many were making fun of the original media firm that has been popular for publishing listicles, there were some who defended the Pulitzer Prize-winning outlet.

For those unaware, the recent developments have also impacted BuzzFeed adversely. After the news of the mass layoffs and of the shutdown broke, the parent company's shares plummeted by almost 20%.