(John Ransom, Headline USA) Jon Schleuss, president of the union representing workers who are about to lose their jobs at BuzzFeed, called BuzzFeed’s CEO “a coward” for cutting the newsroom staff, said The Wrap.
BuzzFeed chief executive Jonah Peretti has been facing pressure from investors since last year as the company began to lose value, culminating in an IPO that netted only $16 million out of a planned to $257 million, according to the New York Post.
The company has then seen the value of its public stock drop by 50 percent since it began trading in December 2021.
Ironically, the company announced fairly good financial results recently; however those results pointed out the continued losses in the news division, where BuzzFeed has tried to make a name for itself as a progressive thought leader.
BuzzFeed News Union Chief Calls Out CEO Amid Wave of Digital Downsizing: ‘Don’t Be a Coward’ https://t.co/ouhVVCrqkq
— Steve Berkowitz (@steveberkowitz) March 29, 2022
The results put pressure on Peretti to acquiesce to demands by his investors to cut the newsroom, which mostly means a cut to the political coverage that is often seen left of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union.
“This morning we announced plans to accelerate profitability for BuzzFeed News, including leadership changes, the addition of a dedicated business development group, and a planned reduction in force,” Peretti said, reported CNBC.
“We will prioritize investments around coverage of the biggest news of the day, culture and entertainment, celebrity, and life on the Internet.”
But Schleuss and the union said “not so fast” to the plans to downsize the newsroom, acting like it was 1972 and the company was US Steel.
“Now that we have our union, the era of them making unilateral decisions that affect our work and our lives is over,” said the union in a statement.
The union said that they will be filing an unfair labor practices complaint with the national labor relations board, saying that BuzzFeed will first have to reach a contract with the union before any downsizing were to occur.
“We won’t stand for it,” said the union.
“This news from management is a proposal, not a mandate,” the union added.
It’s kind of a progressive euthanasia for journalism, as BuzzFeed seems to have been done- in by the very progressive policies for which their newsroom has argued.
