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Laid off from BuzzFeed.

BuzzFeed has shed staff every year since 2022, and the deepest cut its filings report, counting dedicated contractors, came after Byron Allen's 2026 takeover. Unused paid time off was a fight in 2019 and, by a laid-off HuffPost reporter's account, again in 2026.

What we know about BuzzFeed severance and layoffs

  • About 180 BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Tasty jobs in the cut disclosed in July 2026
  • $7.2 million booked for the July 2026 cut through September, mainly severance and benefits
  • 507 employees in five countries as 2025 closed, before the July 2026 cut
  • 172 employees terminated in 2022 under a cut of about 12%
  • 36 New York employees on BuzzFeed's May 2023 notice of a department closing
  • $1.8 million in severance and related payments repaid by Complex's buyer in 2024

The most recent BuzzFeed layoff we've found

In November 2026, BuzzFeed's third-quarter report said the July cut had cost about $7.2 million through September, mostly severance and related benefits, and that about $2.8 million of it was still unpaid on September 30, which the company expected to pay mainly in the fourth quarter.

What BuzzFeed layoffs have meant for employees

The NewsGuild at BuzzFeed News and the HuffPost Union have each bargained over buyouts. In March 2022, as BuzzFeed's 2022 10-K tells it, the company put a voluntary buyout proposal for certain BuzzFeed News desks to NewsGuild and negotiated it with the BuzzFeed News Union. In February 2025 the HuffPost Union said its contract had required management to warn it of layoffs ahead of time, which let it negotiate buyouts for the targeted teams, though some teams were told to relocate or take the buyout. In 2026, HuffPost's union members said management wouldn't work with them on buyouts at all, TheWrap reported.

In two of BuzzFeed's cuts, some of the people affected had another job within reach. When Complex was sold in February 2024, the buyer agreed to make job offers to certain Complex employees, the 8-K announcing the sale shows, and for the employees who didn't transfer it repaid BuzzFeed about $1.8 million for their severance and related payments, so that severance ended up as the buyer's cost. When BuzzFeed News began closing in April 2023, Jonah Peretti's memo said HuffPost and BuzzFeed.com had signaled they'd open select roles for its staff. Both documents scoped those openings, to “certain” employees and “select” roles.

BuzzFeed's stated reasons have circled back to cash. In 2022 the company cited the economy, the Complex Networks integration and the audience's shift to short vertical video, as the 2022 10-K records, and the 2025 10-K ties the April 2023 cut to profitability and cash flow. The 2024 cut shrank central operations so the brands could run with more autonomy, and the August 2025 cut was intended to align costs with the areas BuzzFeed believed were more likely to produce the best long-term results. In July 2026 the goals were profitability, positive cash flow and preserving cash, per BuzzFeed's quarterly report from November, and the plan counted dedicated contractors along with employees. If you were a dedicated contractor whose work ended that summer, the company's own filing counted roles like yours in the cut. For people deciding whether to stay, those stated reasons show where the company looked for savings in each of those rounds.

In April 2023 the news arrived in two messages. Those losing jobs outside BuzzFeed News were to hear by email from HR, and Peretti's note said anyone receiving it wasn't affected by that day's changes. The WARN notices on record for BuzzFeed's cuts since 2022 came from New York City and Los Angeles. New York's copy of the May 2023 notice for the BuzzFeed News closing named NewsGuild as the union and set separations for August 3 or the 14 days after, and California's notices for the 2022 and 2024 cuts carried Los Angeles addresses. Our WARN tracker places the July 2026 notice in New York City. If you worked out of either city, we cover New York unemployment benefits and California's separately.

If you're still at BuzzFeed, HuffPost or Tasty, the treatment of unused time off and what the union could win have both shifted between rounds. It can help to put a dollar figure on your unused days and to check whether your job is covered by the HuffPost Union's contract, since in 2026, by one laid-off reporter's account, its members were still paid for unused time and others weren't. In the 2024 filing, severance was an offer BuzzFeed said eligible employees would get in exchange for a signed release.

A sourced history of BuzzFeed layoffs

  • July 2026, about 35% of staff and contractors

    The cut spanned geographies and functions, per BuzzFeed's 10-Q filed in November, and was the first major restructuring since Byron Allen took control, TheWrap reported. BuzzFeed's New York notice of July 27, which our WARN tracker records, counted 84 jobs.

  • August 2025, about 6% workforce cut

    It cost about $1.6 million, the 2025 10-K reports.

  • February 2025, HuffPost newsroom cut

    Nearly 30 HuffPost staff lost their jobs, most of them union members, the HuffPost Union said. The cut came to about 5% of BuzzFeed's workforce and was intended to streamline HuffPost's news operations, per the 2025 10-K.

  • February 2024, Complex sold and a 16% cut

    BuzzFeed announced the cut in the same February 2024 8-K that reported selling Complex for $108.6 million. A notice to California dated February 28 counted 59 jobs at the Los Angeles office, per our WARN tracker.

  • April 2023, 15% cut and BuzzFeed News closing

    BuzzFeed cut staff across business, content, tech and admin teams and began closing BuzzFeed News, which the company could no longer fund on its own, Jonah Peretti's memo said. The memo also said discussions with the News Guild had begun.

  • Fourth quarter 2022, about 12% cut

    BuzzFeed's board approved the cut in the fourth quarter, the 2022 10-K says, and its California notice of December 6 covered 54 jobs, per our WARN tracker.

  • March 2021, HuffPost restructuring after its purchase

    Shortly after buying HuffPost from Verizon Media, BuzzFeed eliminated 47 HuffPost positions, 33 of them union jobs, TheWrap later reported. Severance from that restructuring cost about $3.6 million, the 2022 10-K shows.

  • January 2019, about 15% workforce cut

    The cut let go over 200 people, TheWrap reported, and California logged notices for 76 jobs in Los Angeles and 3 in San Francisco, per our WARN tracker.

What to do if you're laid off from BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed layoff and severance questions

What severance has BuzzFeed given laid-off employees?

For the February 2024 cut, BuzzFeed's 8-K filing said eligible employees were to get severance in exchange for signing a separation and release, subject to a WARN offset where applicable. HuffPost Union members have bargained for theirs, and the union's 2025 statement credited its “strong severance protections” to that collective action, while a reporter let go in the 2026 round said the union had fought off proposed cuts to severance, TheWrap reported.

Does BuzzFeed pay out unused PTO after a layoff?

It has gone both ways. In January 2019, BuzzFeed first planned to pay unused paid time off only in California, then agreed to pay it to laid-off U.S. staff in every state after more than 350 current and former employees petitioned, TheWrap reported. Shortly before the 2026 cuts, BuzzFeed dropped its policy of paying for unused time, a HuffPost reporter who was laid off said, though union members would still be paid because their contract kept it, according to TheWrap's August report.

Were HuffPost jobs cut in BuzzFeed's 2026 layoffs?

They were. The cut BuzzFeed disclosed in July 2026 covered BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Tasty, TheWrap reported, and when it took effect at HuffPost in August, 10 HuffPost Union members were laid off and the national desk was down to three reporters, according to TheWrap's later report.

Did BuzzFeed's layoffs follow Byron Allen's takeover?

Yes. Allen became majority owner and chief executive in May 2026 after a $120 million deal, moving founder Jonah Peretti to a new BuzzFeed AI division, and Variety reported the cut two months later. A staff memo quoted by TheWrap said BuzzFeed had warned in March of “substantial doubt” about staying in business before Allen “quickly stepped in,” and called the cuts “required to put our business on a path to profitable and sustainable growth.”