Things just keep getting worse for BuzzFeed.
On Monday, the struggling media company announced the layoffs of 180 employees, or about a third of its entire workforce, in the latest sign of its decline since its unexpected pivot to AI.
The cuts, according to the New York Times, affect employees at its news site HuffPost, BuzzFeed’s film and TV studio, and the recipe publisher Tasty.
“We’ve been actively managing costs for some time, working through scenarios to save as many jobs as possible,” an internal memo given to staff reads per the NYT. “Unfortunately, the elimination of certain roles is still required. Today’s changes include the elimination of positions across the entire company.”
BuzzFeed was an early embracer of AI. In January 2023, just months after the public launch of ChatGPT, then-CEO Jonah Peretti announced that it would use the chatbot to help generate its trademark quizzes.
That was only the beginning. Soon, the company became the center of a scandal after it was caught using AI to generate entire shoddy articles, a revelation underscored by its decision to shut down its award-winning news division. Traffic to the website collapsed, and so did its share price, plummeting from around $4 to less than $0.50.
By 2025, BuzzFeed was losing $58 million per year. Along the way, it lost some of its most recognizable brands, including being forced to sell First We Feast, the company behind the interview show “Hot Ones,” to help pay off its debt.
BuzzFeed, to be clear, was already struggling before its AI pivot, but it clearly hoped that embracing AI would magically reverse its fortunes. Its new owner and CEO, Byron Allen, who acquired a controlling stake in the company in May, signalled that he’d keep BuzzFeed invested in the tech by making Peretti president of its AI operations. (Peretti is reportedly working on an AI app called “BF Island.”)
Whatever Allen does, he’ll have to run a tight ship. BuzzFeed reported in its latest quarterly earnings that it suffered a nearly 20 percent year-over-year decline in its ad revenue. By culling its workforce, BuzzFeed anticipates up to $32 million in annualized savings, it said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The layoffs echo similar cuts across the media industry, which is feeling the squeeze of AI’s multi-pronged impact. Not only are some employers eager to replace writers by quickly churning out prose, but AI is also extracting information from online publications while cutting off traffic to them, denying them ad revenue.
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