BuzzFeed says it’s closing HuffPost Canada’s operations and laying off 23 workers as part of a broad restructuring plan for the company.
The decision follows a deal announced late last year by BuzzFeed to buy HuffPost from Verizon.
BuzzFeed says in a statement it is also laying off 47 HuffPost employees in the U.S. and beginning consultations in Australia and the U.K. to propose “slimming operations” in both places.
HuffPost Canada says in a message posted to its website that it will no longer be publishing content.
It said existing content will be maintained as an online archive, but that certain site features will be permanently disabled as of March 12.
CWA Canada says about two dozen workers at HuffPost Canada had filed for union certification in February.
Martin O’Hanlon, president of CWA Canada, says it appears the decision to close HuffPost’s Canadian operations was planned.
O’Hanlon says the decision is devastating for Canadian journalism and continues the alarming trend of media consolidation across the country.
Today is a sad day. This morning, we found out that BuzzFeed will be shutting down operations of HuffPost Canada and Quebec next week.
All of our staff are now out of a job.
— HuffPost Canada Union (@HuffpostCAUnion) March 9, 2021
