BuzzFeed published a vanity newspaper edition of its website just weeks after laying off some 200 staffers.
On Wednesday morning, using its verified Twitter account, the far-left BuzzFeed posted photographs of a “one-off” publicity stunt: editor-in-chief Ben Smith handing out newspapers to New York City subway commuters.
Judging from the photographs, BuzzFeed does not appear to be charging for the newspaper, just handing them out like literature.
The company is not, apparently, looking to expand its advertising revenue through print — a model that has worked well for DC’s Politico. But according to a press release sent out Tuesday night, this is a “one-off” event — paying money merely to goof on the site’s love of gifs and niche Internet subcultures using a medium which many legacy publications are finding too costly to sustain.
The sight of Ben Smith’s publicity stunt must be painful to watch for the hundreds of staffers recently laid off by BuzzFeed.
Over the last 15 months, in two desperate cost-cutting attempts, BuzzFeed has fired some 300 employees, which amounts to more than 20 percent of its staff. The first round of layoffs in November of 2017 totaled 100. Then, just a little over a year later, in January of 2019, 200 more layoffs were announced.
“The move is meant to trim costs and maintain growth as the company aims to hit profitability this year,” the Times reported in January. “BuzzFeed, which employs over 1,300 people, generated more than $300 million in revenue in 2018. That was a jump of better than 15 percent from the previous year, but the company still loses money.”
This second round of layoffs came just days after the left-wing company was humiliated with a major fake news scandal involving a false report about President Trump explicitly telling his then-personal attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. BuzzFeed even claimed there was written documentation of Trump suborning perjury.
To make matters worse, BuzzFeed still refuses to retract a story no one else in the media has been able to corroborate, a story so false the Special Counsel’s office declared it fake news. What’s more, in his congressional testimony this week, Cohen testified Trump did not explicitly tell him to lie. The only thing Cohen — who has now turned against the president — could say is that Trump’s body language indicated he wanted Cohen to perjure himself.
Body language is a long way from “explicit” and there being documented proof, as BuzzFeed claims.
Regardless, BuzzFeed has never explained why the president would order his attorney to lie when his son, Don Jr., testified on the same subject and told the truth.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.