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Friday, November 20, 2020

BuzFeed To Acquire Huffington Post From Verizon


BuzzFeed on Thursday bought news website HuffPost from Verizon Communications Inc VZ.N in the latest sign of consolidation in the online media world.

Reuters reports the deal brings two once-hot digital properties - viewed as the future of news media but which have suffered from competition for ad dollars from Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google and Facebook FB.O - under the control of one of HuffPost's co-founders.

Verizon, which also owns Yahoo and TechCrunch, said it will invest in the new combined company and take a minority stake.

The companies will syndicate content across each other’s platforms, explore monetization opportunities and leverage ad formats, the companies said in a statement.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In an interview, BuzzFeed Chief Executive Officer Jonah Peretti, said he was attracted to the property’s more affluent and age-diverse audience which “enhanced the size and scale of our media network.”

In the past few years, HuffPost has struggled with declining advertising revenue and adopted a series of cost-cutting measures, including layoffs. The outlet has tried to pivot to a subscription model since last year, with limited success, according to a person familiar with its operations.

Independent digital media outlets have consolidated to compete for ad dollars against big rivals. Vox Media last year acquired New York Media - the publisher of a print magazine and several online properties - and Vice Media bought Refinery29, an online publication geared to women.

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