BuzzFeed to lay off 200 staff in latest round of cuts Read moreOn Wednesday, HuffPost’s parent company, Verizon Media Group, and BuzzFeed both announced plans to lay off hundreds of staff. The news signalled a collision between the dream of an online media boom and the accountants’ harsher reality: questions over the long-term profitability of digital media companies, and, as a result, concerns over the future of online journalism itself. Major online media companies, which are often referred to as startups – despite, in many cases, being more than a decade old – are now having to control costs. Even as online media companies have fought off a slew of low-rent competitors mimicking their distribution methods, they have also had to contend with more established outlets learning from their skills in experimentation. Some outlets are relying on contributions from readers, a model which has helped the Guardian’s parent company edge towards breaking even after years of heavy financial losses.

Source: The Guardian January 24, 2019 18:15 UTC