HuffPost’s high editor resigned after the left-leaning information website was hit by mass layoffs — as fury grows that the mother or father 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 website introduced it was slashing 30 jobs, or 22% of HuffPost’s newsroom.
“I could not, in good faith, ask others to make this difficult decision without doing the same,” Belton wrote in a memo to staffers.
“At my core, I am a very sensitive and emotional person, which is why I haven’t been as communicative in the last few days.”
Govt editors Kate Palmer and Whitney Snyder will take over as newsroom, Belton added, whereas the corporate figures out its “next 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 mother or father, 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 tough business and I’m not naive about cuts – but is he also another exec bowing to MAGA?” HuffPost nationwide editor George Zornick posted on X on Thursday. “Again, I know that layoffs happen. Believe me I know. But the shocking scale of this week’s announced layoffs do not match the financial information we have about HuffPost. We’ve been given scant, if any, explanation.”
Alexander Kaufman, a senior reporter at HuffPost, shared Zornick’s publish on X and added: “In the coming weeks, HuffPost is going to ax upward of one-quarter of our newsroom. Under @gzornick’s leadership, my team won awards, broke major stories and beat our monthly traffic goals by threefold. How does dismantling us serve long-term business or journalistic goals?”
Zornick additionally shared an excerpt from Peretti’s current 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 guide a newly-proposed Division of Authorities Effectivity with Elon Musk, might play within the left-leaning website.
Ramaswamy “doesn’t have control” of Buzzfeed and expects “to find a way toward a successful exit of his BuzzFeed investment,” the interview stated.
Semafor additionally mused: “perhaps there’s a path to successful activism and a bit of political satisfaction on the side. Ramaswamy is also pushing cost cuts.”
