Back to mobile site

BuzzFeed (BZFD) Confirms Plans to Cut 15% of Workforce

FREE Breaking News Alerts from StreetInsider.com!

E-mail Address

StreetInsider.com Top Tickers, 8/20/2026

1. TGT
2. EL
3. SPY
4. WMT
5. ADI
6. ROST
7. BILL
8. MRK
9. MRNA
10. COTY

April 20, 2023 11:22 AM EDT

BuzzFeed (NASDAQ: BZFD) disclosed:

On April 20, 2023, BuzzFeed, Inc. (the “Company”), announced plans to reduce expenses by implementing an approximately 15 percent reduction in the current workforce. A copy of a corporate communication shared internally is attached as Exhibit 99.1 to this report.
The reduction in workforce plan is part of a broader strategic reprioritization across the Company in order to accelerate revenue growth and improve upon profitability and cash flow. The Company expects to substantially complete the reduction in workforce plan by the end of the second quarter of 2023.


Where required, worker adjustment and retraining notification ("WARN") shall be given. In addition, all eligible employees shall be offered severance benefits in exchange for the execution of a separation and release agreement.

In connection with the workforce reduction, senior executives subject to the Company's Change in Control and Severance Plan will receive severance in accordance therewith, contingent on their execution of a separation and release agreement.

The Company expects to recognize restructuring charges in connection with the workforce reduction plan, including the cost of providing, where required, WARN notice, and severance, including outplacement services and benefits continuation. We estimate that the foregoing charges will range between $7 million to $11 million, and we expect the charges will be recognized primarily in the second quarter of 2023, with the majority of such charges anticipated to be paid by the end of the third quarter of 2023. The substantial majority of these charges will result in cash expenditures.

Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
(b) Departure of Chief Operating Officer of BuzzFeed, Inc. and Chief Executive Officer of Complex Networks

On April 20, 2023, the Company announced that Christian Baesler will be departing the Company, effective April 28, 2023, in order to pursue other opportunities outside of the Company.

Subsequently, the Company's President, Marcela Martin, who joined the Company in August 2022, will assume responsibility for all revenue functions.

Item 2.02 Results of Operations and Financial Condition.
The Company expects to announce revenue and Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter ended March 31, 2023 in line with the outlook provided on the Company's fourth quarter 2022 earnings conference call on March 13, 2023. As previously announced, the Company is scheduled to report its first quarter 2023 financial results on Tuesday, May 9, 2023.
The information included under Item 2.02 of this Current Report on Form 8-K is being furnished and shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such a filing.

Hi all,
I am writing to announce some difficult news. We are reducing our workforce by approximately 15% today across our Business, Content, Tech and Admin teams, and beginning the process of closing BuzzFeed News. Additionally, we are proposing headcount reductions in some international markets.
Impacted employees (other than those in BuzzFeed News) will receive an email from HR shortly. If you are receiving this note from me, you are not impacted by today’s changes. For BuzzFeed News, we have begun discussions with the News Guild about these actions.
As part of today’s changes, both our CRO Edgar Hernandez and COO Christian Baesler have made the decision to exit the company. I’m grateful to both of them for their passion and dedication to Complex and to BuzzFeed, Inc. Christian will be with us through the end of April, and Edgar through the end of May to help with the transition.
Marcela Martin, our President, will take on responsibility for all revenue functions effective immediately. In the US, Andrew Guendjoian is our new Head of Sales, and Ken Blom will continue in his role as Head of Revenue Operations. Globally, International Sales will move under Rich Reid, Head of International and Head of Studio, also reporting to Marcela.
I have great confidence in this revenue leadership team, and the early plans I’ve seen from them to accelerate performance from our Business Org. We will share more on their plans in the Business All Hands next week (and we are extending an invite company-wide).
The changes the Business Organization is making today are focused on reducing layers in their organization, increasing speed and effectiveness of pitches, streamlining our product mix, doubling down on creators, and beginning to bring AI enhancements to every aspect of our sales process.
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. As a result, we will engage with the News Guild about our cost reduction plans and what this will mean for the affected union members.
HuffPost and BuzzFeed Dot Com have signaled that they will open a number of select roles for members of BuzzFeed News. These roles will be aligned with those divisions’ business goals and match the skills and strengths of many of BuzzFeed News's editors and reporters. We raised this idea with the News Guild this morning and look forward to discussing it further. Moving forward, we will have a single news brand in HuffPost, which is profitable, with a loyal direct front page audience.
I want to explain a little more about why we’ve come to these deeply painful decisions. We’ve faced more challenges than I can count in the past few years: a pandemic, a fading SPAC market that yielded less capital, a tech recession, a tough economy, a declining stock market, a decelerating digital advertising market and ongoing audience and platform shifts. Dealing with all of these obstacles at once is part of why we’ve needed to make the difficult decisions to eliminate more jobs and reduce spending.
But I also want to be clear: I could have managed these changes better as the CEO of this company and our leadership team could have performed better despite these circumstances. Our job is to adapt, change, improve, and perform despite the challenges in the world. We can and will do better.
In particular, the integration process of BuzzFeed and Complex, and the unification of our two business organizations, should have been executed faster and better. The macro environment is tough, but we had the potential to generate much more revenue than we delivered over the past 12 months.
Additionally, 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.


Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!

You May Also Be Interested In





Related Categories

Corporate News, Guidance, Hot Corp. News

Related Entities

Layoffs, Earnings, SPAC