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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Great News - Buzzfeed's Almost Profitable! |
| 2020-01-04 |
| Does this make them a 'non-profit' organization? [WSJ] - BuzzFeed Edges Closer to Profitability After Tough Year BuzzFeed has worked to stabilize itself after a tumultuous period last year in which it laid off 250 people following an annual loss that people familiar with the matter said was greater than $50 million. "Learn to code...or mine coal" Now, the onetime digital-media darling is edging closer to profitability thanks to staff cuts and efforts in recent years to generate new revenue streams, such as launching its own line of kitchenware and investing in a chain of stores selling quirky toys. "There has been this idea that digital media companies have been forced to diversify their revenue because times have been tough," BuzzFeed founder and Chief Executive Jonah Peretti said in an interview. "But the other side of the story is that the internet has really allowed for the creation of a new kind of media company that wasn’t entirely possible in the past." Ignore for now the sympathetic tone of the article and let's cut to the chase, as there are only two numbers I need - 2019's gross revenue of $320 million and an unstated loss amount that I'll generously say was cut in half from the 2018 loss, so that's $25 million. That's still an 8% loss. If those 250 layoffs involved an annual salary of $40,000, BuzzFeed saved all of $10 million from that cut, on an annual basis (the shitcanning happened mid-year). A lot more shitcannings than 250 will be required to close that gap. I think it's safe to conclude BuzzFeed is now just another media company enjoying the same trajectory as most other media companies - straight into the shitter. |
| Posted by:Raj |
| #5 Thanks, Frank - I got one more biz. article coming up! |
| Posted by: Raj 2020-01-04 09:04 |
| #4 Not the Bee? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2020-01-04 08:57 |
| #3 "Kitchenware"? "Quirky toys"?? This is actually Bee, right? |
| Posted by: Lex 2020-01-04 08:56 |
| #2 Moved |
| Posted by: Frank G 2020-01-04 08:53 |
| #1 Sorry, mods - please move accordingly. Freakin' Microsoft Edge was locking up on me when I was doing the post... |
| Posted by: Raj 2020-01-04 08:52 |