BuzzFeed Is Laying Off About 100 Employees

Man. Today must just be the day of layoffs.

As we told you earlier, ESPN is laying off about 150 behind-the-scenes employees. That’s in addition to the 100 employees the network got rid of earlier this year.

BuzzFeed is going through a little somethin’ somethin’ too.

BuzzFeed’s CEO Jonah Peretti made the announcement Wednesday. It looks like the layoffs center around the advertising sales and business operations departments.

In an email to staff, @peretti details BuzzFeed layoffs and restructuring on the business and UK side pic.twitter.com/oCNPoQ3eYu

— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) November 29, 2017

“As our strategy evolves, we need to evolve our organization, too — particularly our Business team, which was built to support direct sold advertising but will need to bring in different, more diverse expertise to support these new lines of business,” Peretti wrote. “Unfortunately, this means we have to say goodbye to some talented colleagues whose work has helped us tremendously.”

Just for some perspective, BuzzFeed employs about 1,700 staffers, meaning “the layoffs amount to about 7% of the company.”

BuzzFeed president Greg Coleman will step down as part of the reorganization, but remain as an advisor. The company is also currently searching for a COO.

Another part of the restructuring will see BuzzFeed Motion Pictures rebrand itself BuzzFeed Studio, bringing together internal and external content development efforts under one roof. BuzzFeed is expected to redouble its efforts on getting additional licensing opportunities such as its deal with Oxygen for an unscripted crime series.

BuzzFeed is also looking to expand its efforts to mint its own brands given the success of its food-themed vertical, Tasty. A new division, BuzzFeed Media Brands, will host Tasty and its other fledgling verticals, including an upcoming fashion-focused effort scheduled to launch next year.

As much as BuzzFeed annoys me (it basically encompasses our crappy millennial culture), I’ll admit that I take their stupid quizzes and read their suggested gift guides on the regular. (In my defense, I have my app set up so it weeds out most of the stupid social justice and political news.)  And yes. I’m a tad bit obsessed with Tasty. Those videos are mesmerizing.

They suck you in, man!

But there you have it. BuzzFeed is also feeling the heat.