HuffPost’s high editor resigned after the left-leaning information web site was hit by mass layoffs — as fury grows that the dad or mum firm was “bowing to MAGA” forward of Donald Trump taking workplace this month.
Editor-in-chief Danielle Belton stated she was leaving the corporate late Thursday — two days after the Buzzfeed-owned web site introduced it was slashing 30 jobs, or 22% of HuffPost’s newsroom.
“I couldn’t, in good religion, ask others to make this troublesome resolution with out doing the identical,” Belton wrote in a memo to staffers.
“At my core, I’m a really delicate and emotional individual, which is why I haven’t been as communicative in the previous few days.”
Government editors Kate Palmer and Whitney Snyder will take over as newsroom, Belton added, whereas the corporate figures out its “subsequent steps” with the editor-in-chief function.
The layoffs adopted a report this summer time that former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who owns a minority stake in HuffPost’s dad or mum, had been pushing for cuts on the firm.
Information of Belton’s exit and the broader cuts associated to enterprise challenges sparked anger on the Buzzfeed- CEO Jonah Peretti.
“It’s a tricky enterprise and I’m not naive about cuts – however is he additionally one other exec bowing to MAGA?” HuffPost nationwide editor George Zornick posted on X on Thursday. “Once more, I do know that layoffs occur. Imagine me I do know. However the stunning scale of this week’s introduced layoffs don’t match the monetary info we now have about HuffPost. We’ve been given scant, if any, clarification.”
Alexander Kaufman, a senior reporter at HuffPost, shared Zornick’s publish on X and added: “Within the coming weeks, HuffPost goes to ax upward of one-quarter of our newsroom. Underneath @gzornick’s management, my group gained awards, broke main tales and beat our month-to-month visitors targets by threefold. How does dismantling us serve long-term enterprise or journalistic targets?”
Zornick additionally shared an excerpt from Peretti’s latest interview with Semafor following his assembly with Ramaswamy, who purchased 9% of Buzzfeed final summer time.
He quoted the interview, which explores the function Ramaswamy, who was just lately tapped by Trump to steer a newly-proposed Division of Authorities Effectivity with Elon Musk, could play within the left-leaning web site.
Ramaswamy “doesn’t have management” of Buzzfeed and expects “to discover a method towards a profitable exit of his BuzzFeed funding,” the interview stated.
Semafor additionally mused: “maybe there’s a path to profitable activism and a little bit of political satisfaction on the aspect. Ramaswamy can also be pushing price cuts.”