Buzzfeed and Insider Reportedly Cutting Jobs Amid Advertising Slowdowns

Two digital media organizations have reportedly made job cuts.

Buzzfeed is shutting its news operation and eliminating 180 jobs, while Insider is cutting 10% of its staff, Bloomberg reported Thursday (April 20).

Reached by PYMNTS for comment, a Buzzfeed spokesperson confirmed the Bloomberg report. Insider did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

The report attributed the moves at Buzzfeed to a slowdown in advertising, a decline in revenue and an inability to sustain a profit despite previous headcount reductions.

Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti told staff in a memo: “We are moving forward only with the parts of the business that have demonstrated their ability to add to the bottom line. That means we will no longer be supporting Buzzfeed News as a standalone operation,” according to the report.

At Insider, executives said the cuts resulted from the industry being “under significant pressure for more than a year,” the report said.

These layoffs are the latest in a string of reductions across industries that have often focused on white-collar jobs.

On Wednesday, it was reported that Meta is preparing layoffs affecting its flagship social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp—and its virtual reality (VR) arm, Realty Labs.

The tech giant had announced in March that it was eliminating 10,000 jobs after laying off 11,000 workers in November of last year. It also plans to freeze hiring for an additional 5,000 open roles.

Earlier in April, McDonald’s began a restructuring that included laying off hundreds of corporate employees, reducing the compensation packages of others and closing field offices.

Around the same time, Apple began reducing the number of roles on its corporate retail teams, focusing on the development and preservation teams that are responsible for the construction and upkeep of Apple stores and other facilities.

In March, Disney began shuttering its metaverse business as part of a plan to shrink its headcount by about 7,000, cut costs and restore profitability.

Also in late March, Amazon announced it would lay off 9,000 employees in its cloud computing, Twitch livestream and advertising departments on top of the 18,000 roles it eliminated in January.