Major changes lie ahead for BuzzFeed.
On Wednesday, February 21, NTWRK, with support from Main Street Advisors, Interscope Geffen A&M and and Capitol Music Group, acquired BuzzFeed’s culture media imprint. NTWRK and its strategic partners at Universal Music Group hope to transform Complex into a “new destination for ‘superfan’ culture that will define the future of commerce, digital media, and music.”
“Complex has been a beacon of culture and innovation for over two decades,” Complex CEO Aaron Levant said.
“My journey with Complex began as an admirer of their original magazine in 2002 and it has now come full circle as I step into the leadership role. Alongside this impressive team, we will create the definitive global content, commerce, and experiential platform of convergence culture.”
In addition to offloading Complex to NTWRK, BuzzFeed also reportedly laid off 16% of its staff. The company is embarking on a restructuring effort “designed to get back on financial track.”
“Digital publishers are facing multiple headwinds in the current market, and our recent revenue performance reflects the fact that a bundled portfolio approach is not aligned with current advertiser or platform trends,” BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti wrote in an email.
“More importantly, our performance does not reflect the value or future growth potential of our individual brands. The changes we are making to reduce the size of our business and administrative teams will position each brand to operate more autonomously. Moving forward, we will focus on bringing each of our brands to market with a focus on their differentiation for our advertising and platform partners.”
