BuzzFeed is laying off more than 200 people, its second round of cuts in 14 months

BuzzFeed is laying off 15 percent of employees throughout the company, according to an email that CEO Jonah Peretti sent to staff on Wednesday evening, a cut that could impact around 225 of the roughly 1,450 employees at the company.

Peretti says that while BuzzFeed’s business grew “double digits” over the past year, revenue growth alone wasn’t enough to avoid cost cuts.

“The restructuring we are undertaking will reduce our costs and improve our operating model so we can thrive and control our own destiny, without ever needing to raise funding again,” he wrote to employees.

Peretti added that employees would learn “specifics on the process by Monday at the latest,” meaning there will be a period over the next few days where it’s unclear which employees will be terminated.

It’s the second time BuzzFeed has made layoffs in the past 14 months; it laid off 100 employees in late 2017. The Wall Street Journal first reported Wednesday’s layoffs.

It was a tough day for the media world. Verizon, which owns AOL and Yahoo, also announced that it is cutting 800 jobs.

Here’s the full email Peretti sent to BuzzFeed employees:

Hello BuzzFeeders,

I’m writing with sad news: we are doing layoffs at BuzzFeed next week. We will be making a 15% overall reduction in headcount across the company. I’m sending this tonight because I wanted you to hear it from me directly instead of from the press.

Over the past few months, we’ve done extensive work examining the trends in our business and the evolving economics of the digital platforms. We’ve developed a good understanding of where we can consolidate our teams, focus in on the content that is working, and achieve the right cost structure to support our multi-revenue model. We are confident the changes we are making will put us on a firm foundation and allow us to invest and grow sustainably for years to come.

I’m so proud of what our team accomplished over the last year, including diversifying our revenue, and growing our business double digits. Unfortunately, revenue growth by itself isn’t enough to be successful in the long run. The restructuring we are undertaking will reduce our costs and improve our operating model so we can thrive and control our own destiny, without ever needing to raise funding again. These changes will allow us to be the clear winner in the market as the economics of digital media continue to improve.

I’ll share more about our future structure in a few days, but today I want to focus on what will be a difficult week, especially for the people who are leaving the company. These are talented people, friends, and valued colleagues, who’ve made huge contributions to our success, and who’ve done nothing wrong. Even though I’m confident this is the right business decision, it is upsetting and disappointing.

On a personal note, I’ve never thought about my job as “just business.” I care about the people at BuzzFeed more than anything other than my family. This will be a tough week for all of us and I realize it will be much worse for the people losing their jobs. To them, I want to say thank you, I’m sorry our work together is ending this way, and I hope we get to work together again in the future. Our loss will be to the benefit of other organizations where I know you will go on to make formidable contributions.

We will be back to you with specifics on the process by Monday at the latest. Thank you all in advance for your compassion and kindness as we go through this process.