The Grim Reaper Visits BuzzFeed and You Can Probably Guess How That Turned Out

I gloated a bit earlier today over HuffPo being forced to go through what was, hopefully, just the first round of layoffs. About 20 of their staff were let go and there was some Pulitzer Prize-class talent out on the street.

While reporting today about federal workers who can't afford tampons, I was laid off from HuffPost. If there's anything I can say after 7 years, it's that I will finish the story. (Also if you're looking to hire a reporter to cover poverty and inequality, I'm available)

— Eleanor Goldberg (@ESGoldberg) January 24, 2019

I’m sure this magnum opus will be serialized and made into a Lifetime movie. By the way…don’t mention that they should learn to code. That really triggers them. I found out I was part of a 4chan conspiracy.

While that was happening, Karma was paying a visit to BuzzFeed.

Ain't no more work down at the old Huffington Opinion mill since they done automated them goddamn Googlebots. I heared the gonna layoff the third shift over to the Buzzfeed clickbait plant, too

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 24, 2019

“This is going to be a tough week,” Ben Smith, the editor in chief of BuzzFeed News, wrote in an email to his staff on Wednesday. On Friday, the newsroom learned just how tough, when the company laid off 43 of the roughly 250 journalists who worked in that division, according to a BuzzFeed spokesman.

The cut was the start of a planned 15 percent reduction of the overall work force at BuzzFeed, a company perhaps best known for producing content meant to be shared on social media. The layoffs, which the staff learned about from an email sent by the BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti, are expected to continue into next week and affect around 200 employees.

The staff reduction at BuzzFeed News included the seven members of the national desk, the six-person national security team and the two journalists covering health, according to the spokesman. All but two members of the entertainment team were laid off and all but one on the L.B.G.T. desk. There were no cuts to the technology, politics or investigations teams.

Much like the cuts at HuffPo, the sections hit were there was zero knowledge or expertise. Sorry, kids, having a degree in gender studies or critical ass scratching doesn’t give you the expertise to be a value-add to any conversation on national security or health. No one needs to read either BuzzFeed or HuffPo to know what their opinions are on things. You might read it for laughs or, if you are particularly stupid, you might read it to have your prejudices validated. But you’re never going to read it to be surprised or actually learn anything. And, unsurprisingly, BuzzFeed’s coverage of gay sex was more useful than its coverage of national security or politics.

https://twitter.com/RaheemKassam/status/1088924601227333632

https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1088924052830519297

And there will be more good news next week.

https://twitter.com/ohkayewhatever/status/1088845132919652355

And it promises to be epic. This is from an online “conversation” between employees and CEO Jonah Piretti.

CREDIT: https://splinternews.com/we-now-go-live-to-buzzfeeds-ask-jonah-anything-slack-ch-1832062012

And, like HuffPo, BuzzFeed employed cretinous douchebags who should never be allowed near anything more influential than a WaWa register (sorry, WaWa, I love you, but you know what I mean) again.

🎻 @HuffPost pic.twitter.com/IGOet2zV13

— TheRightWingM 🇺🇸 (@TheRightWingM) January 25, 2019

Sending a bunch of racist shitty catholic kids to the rez to learn and be saved from their racist ways is not a good solution to the shitty racist kids thing. Indian Country has dealt with enough bullshit from racist Catholics looking for salvation.

— john r stanton (@dcbigjohn) January 19, 2019

I’ve been laid off. I’m extraordinarily proud of the work I and my colleagues have done during my 6 and half years at BuzzFeed. It was an extraordinary group of reporters and editors to work with.

— john r stanton (@dcbigjohn) January 25, 2019

On the whole, this is a much needed clearing out of underbrush. Think of it as being analogous to what happened to Pets.com when the internet bubble burst. All those companies that weren’t producing anything but Super Bowl commercials and burning through VC cash went away. Neither BuzzFeed nor HuffPo produce very much in the way of quality in the areas they axed. Rather, those business units…if one may be so extravagant as to call the that…were nothing more than sinecures for otherwise unemployable SJWs with no sense of irony.

https://twitter.com/abdiragemohamed/status/800103152771100672

My friend, Jim Hanson is right, in principle.

This news just keeps on getting better

And while I sympathize w/ the people affected

They worked for a garbage organization putting out a garbage product

The world 🌎 is better off without it https://t.co/aKLwJHMVoC

— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) January 25, 2019

But never fear, we know these people are going to show back up and they may be closer than you can imagine:

I’m sure there are conservative writers out there who need jobs. https://t.co/p7KpXaKo9S

— David Reaboi (@davereaboi) January 25, 2019

Also what's the assumption here? That the Examiner doesn't hire enough conservatives? Dave, if you know conservative reporters looking for work you know where to send them.

— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) January 25, 2019