The Independent will take control of BuzzFeed and HuffPost in the UK and Ireland with the intention to create “Britain’s biggest publisher network for gen Z and millennial audiences”, the publishers have said.
The two media companies will combine their publishing, data and advertising platforms “to allow commercial partners to seamlessly buy across their sites”.
As part of a multiyear licensing deal the Independent will take over HuffPost UK as well as BuzzFeed’s sub-brands in the UK including Tasty UK and the black British identity brand Seasoned.
The move marks a new era in the youth media field, which BuzzFeed looked set to dominate after its launch in 2006. Once looked on with envy by legacy publishers who coveted its reach with younger audiences, its star has faded after huge losses at its parent company.
The drop in BuzzFeed’s share value – which fell 95% from when the company went public at $10 (£8) a share in December 2021, according to a CNBC report last year – has been precipitous for an organisation that won awards for its news coverage and was seen as a new media model.
In March 2021, HuffPost shut down its national news operation, retaining only the politics team. Then, in April last year, BuzzFeed closed what remained of its news department, with the founder, Jonah Peretti, telling staff that “the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News” and suggesting there might not be a sustainable business model for high-quality online news.
It will now come under the control of the Independent, which was launched in 1986 and is part-owned by a bank controlled by the Saudi state. The Independent went online-only in 2016 and has been profitable since, reporting an operating profit of £1.9m in the year to 30 September 2022. However, all online news publishers are facing a torrid financial time as social networks such as Facebook are no longer delivering as many readers, while advertisers are cutting spending.
In January, the Independent experienced the biggest monthly audience drop of 12%, down to 19.2 million, according to Press Gazette’s monthly audience rankings.
Christian Broughton, the Independent’s chief executive and former editor-in-chief, said the partnership with BuzzFeed “represents a new leap forward” for its business.
“Combining these world-renowned brands, each celebrated in its own right for industry-leading digital innovation, is designed to create unprecedented opportunities for these titles and all the commercial partners we work with,” he said.
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“By pooling the talent, tech and data, and creating Britain’s biggest publisher network for gen Z and millennial audiences, we seek to unlock investment in new editorial products and services that will ultimately benefit the readers of all the titles.”
Making their pitch to the dwindling news advertising market the companies said that “commerce, events, audio, content syndication and licensing opportunities will be supported by significant high-yield targeted data segments as publishers and marketers move to first-party data and away from reliance on third-party cookies”.
Richard Alan Reid, the Buzzfeed executive vice-president for global content, said: “[The Independent’s] ambition in the digital space is hugely exciting, and we believe makes them the perfect partner to deepen the connection with our young, diverse audience. The synergies between our companies have been clear from day one.”
