As BuzzFeed cuts its newsroom, journalists react with shock, sadness

Posted Friday, April 21, 2023 11:11 am

Amaris Castillo | Poynter

Albert Samaha was on a Zoom call late Thursday morning for a fellowship program when text messages began flooding his cellphone. Friends were offering support and saying how sorry they were to hear the news.

The BuzzFeed News senior reporter wondered what they were talking about. He checked his work email, where he found a note from BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti. BuzzFeed News was shutting down. BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief Karolina Waclawiak followed that note with her own shortly after.

“My heart dropped,” Samaha, who has been at BuzzFeed News for eight years, told Poynter Thursday afternoon.

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BuzzFeed News is shutting down, and Vice World News could be next (The Wall Street Journal)

A history of BuzzFeed News, Part I (Nieman Lab)

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As BuzzFeed cuts its newsroom, journalists react with shock, sadness

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