Jobs Cuts Hit BuzzFeed

Facing a significant revenue shortfall this year, The Wall Street Journal reports BuzzFeed is laying off about 100 employees and reorganizing its advertising sales and business operations as it moves away from relying purely on native advertising.

BuzzFeed plans to reduce its U.S. staff by 8%, with all the cuts coming from the business and sales side of the organization, the company said Wednesday. Some editorial staffers and business-side employees in the U.K. will also be let go. BuzzFeed employs about 1,700 people world-wide.

The job cuts and organizational changes are part of an effort to diversify the company’s sources of revenue, at a time when fierce competition for online advertising dollars is making it tough for digital media companies to maintain the significant growth rates expected by investors.

As part of the restructuring, Greg Coleman, a high-profile ad-world veteran who has served as BuzzFeed’s president since 2014, will step aside, but remain an adviser to the company. The firm has begun a search for a chief operating officer and to fill a number of high-level business roles as it increases focus on e-commerce, programmatic ad sales and video licensing and development.

Earlier this month, WSJ reported that BuzzFeed had put its plans for a 2018 initial public offering on hold and was on pace to miss its revenue target of about $350 million this year by some 15% to 20%. The company said it still expected to show revenue growth for the year, up from $250 million in 2016.