London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Jun 01, 2025

Turmoil At BuzzFeed, Vice Signals Crisis In The World Of Free Digital Media

Turmoil At BuzzFeed, Vice Signals Crisis In The World Of Free Digital Media

BuzzFeed, one of the OG new media disruptors, announced in late April that it would shutter its news division. Translation: 180 jobs lost.
With the closure of BuzzFeed News and bankruptcy looming at Vice, the once promising world of free digital media finds itself at a crossroads, seeing ad revenues dry up at the same time as disappointed investors begin walking away.

BuzzFeed, one of the OG new media disruptors, announced in late April that it would shutter its news division. Translation: 180 jobs lost.

As for Vice, the company -- once a darling that attracted major funding from Disney and Fox, among others -- has canceled its signature show Vice News Tonight, laid off 100 people, and is reportedly on the verge of declaring bankruptcy.

The two media groups have different profiles and goals, but one thing they have in common is a reliance on advertising dollars to fund their operations.

But in tough economic times, advertising is one of the first things to go, and tech giants now account for 70 percent of all digital ad revenues, with Google and Facebook leading the way.

"I think the free model -- trying to build high volume, and then sell ads on that basis -- hasn't worked out nearly as well as hoped," says Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, a non-profit journalism research organization.

Ben Smith, the onetime editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, is more unequivocal.

"It's the end of the marriage between social media and news," he told The New York Times.

At the start of the 2010s, Vice and BuzzFeed -- along with the Daily Beast and the Huffington Post -- were the standard bearers of a new generation of media outlets that were completely online and ready to battle the traditional purveyors of news.

The model quickly seduced investors.

"These outlets expanded way beyond their capacity, because they were attracting an enormous amount of venture capital," says Dan Kennedy, a professor of journalism at Northeastern University in Boston.

"Venture capitalists told themselves a fairy tale, which was if Vice and Buzzfeed News and all the rest are going to generate this much traffic, there must be a way to monetize all that traffic."

In 2017, Vice Media was valued at $5.7 billion -- more than the market capitalization of The New York Times at the time.

But when progress is slow in coming, investors "get impatient," Edmonds says.

'Hard sell'

As interest rates rose over the past year, tighter lending conditions have made venture capitalists more tight-fisted, and "everybody called in their chips," explains Aileen Gallagher, chair of digital journalism at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Vice and BuzzFeed had already struggled to attract new investments for several years and were forced to resort to taking on debt to stay afloat. Neither was turning a profit.

Fortress Investment Group, Vice's main creditor, could take the media company if it declares bankruptcy, according to The New York Times.

In 2021, BuzzFeed went public, but the move quickly proved disastrous -- the company, once valued at $1.5 billion, only raised $16 million.

In this tumultuous environment, free news websites attached to major groups like Vox (Vox Media), Mashable (Ziff Davis) and The Daily Beast (IAC) have fared better, helped in part by economies of scale and majority shareholders with long-term vision.

BuzzFeed was searching for such a set-up in 2020 when it bought The Huffington Post, which remains part of its group and is even profitable, although with a much smaller footprint than in its heyday, according to CEO Jonah Peretti.

Free media sites are the most exposed when the economy is tight, and many of them -- including NPR, The Washington Post and CNN -- have proceeded with layoffs.

Others, like The Daily Beast, have tried to transition to a paywall model, but for Edmonds, "that's a fairly hard sell to news consumers, particularly if it's a brand they've gotten used to having free."

"You have to really care about something to subscribe to it," Gallagher points out. "There's a lot of middle ground content in the digital world that doesn't have a lot of value. And I think that's the kind of stuff that's going to disappear."
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Hegseth Warns of Potential Chinese Military Action Against Taiwan
OPEC+ Agrees to Increase Oil Output for Third Consecutive Month
Jamie Dimon Warns U.S. Bond Market Faces Pressure from Rising Debt
Turkey Detains Istanbul Officials Amid Anti-Corruption Crackdown
Taylor Swift Gains Ownership of Her First Six Albums
Bangkok Ranked World's Top City for Remote Work in 2025
Satirical Sketch Sparks Political Spouse Feud in South Korea
Indonesia Quarry Collapse Leaves Multiple Dead and Missing
South Korean Election Video Pulled Amid Misogyny Outcry
Asian Economies Shift Away from US Dollar Amid Trade Tensions
Netflix Investigates Allegations of On-Set Mistreatment in K-Drama Production
US Defence Chief Reaffirms Strong Ties with Singapore Amid Regional Tensions
Vietnam Faces Strategic Dilemma Over China's Mekong River Projects
Malaysia's First AI Preacher Sparks Debate on Islamic Principles
White House Press Secretary Criticizes Harvard Funding, Advocates for Vocational Training
France to Implement Nationwide Smoking Ban in Outdoor Spaces Frequented by Children
Meta and Anduril Collaborate on AI-Driven Military Augmented Reality Systems
Russia's Fossil Fuel Revenues Approach €900 Billion Since Ukraine Invasion
U.S. Justice Department Reduces American Bar Association's Role in Judicial Nominations
U.S. Department of Energy Unveils 'Doudna' Supercomputer to Advance AI Research
U.S. SEC Dismisses Lawsuit Against Binance Amid Regulatory Shift
Alcohol Industry Faces Increased Scrutiny Amid Health Concerns
Italy Faces Population Decline Amid Youth Emigration
U.S. Goods Imports Plunge Nearly 20% Amid Tariff Disruptions
OpenAI Faces Competition from Cheaper AI Rivals
Foreign Tax Provision in U.S. Budget Bill Alarms Investors
Trump Accuses China of Violating Trade Agreement
Gerry Adams Wins Libel Case Against BBC
Russia Accuses Serbia of Supplying Arms to Ukraine
EU Central Bank Pushes to Replace US Dollar with Euro as World’s Main Currency
Chinese Woman Dies After Being Forced to Visit Bank Despite Critical Illness
President Trump Grants Full Pardons to Reality TV Stars Todd and Julie Chrisley
Texas Enacts App Store Accountability Act Mandating Age Verification
U.S. Health Secretary Ends Select COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations
Vatican Calls for Sustainable Tourism in 2025 Message
Trump Warns Putin Is 'Playing with Fire' Amid Escalating Ukraine Conflict
India and Pakistan Engage Trump-Linked Lobbyists to Influence U.S. Policy
U.S. Halts New Student Visa Interviews Amid Enhanced Security Measures
Trump Administration Cancels $100 Million in Federal Contracts with Harvard
SpaceX Starship Test Flight Ends in Failure, Mars Mission Timeline Uncertain
King Charles Affirms Canadian Sovereignty Amid U.S. Statehood Pressure
Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on iPhones Amid Dispute with Apple CEO
Putin's Helicopter Reportedly Targeted by Ukrainian Drones
Liverpool Car Ramming Incident Leaves Multiple Injured
Australia Faces Immigration Debate Following Labor Party Victory
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Founder Warns Against Trusting Regime in Nuclear Talks
Macron Dismisses Viral Video of Wife's Gesture as Playful Banter
Cleveland Clinic Study Questions Effectiveness of Recent Flu Vaccine
Netanyahu Accuses Starmer of Siding with Hamas
Junior Doctors Threaten Strike Over 4% Pay Offer
×