BuzzFeed Acquires HuffPost as Part of Broader Verizon Deal

There's going to be an amazing portmanteau for this, isn't there?

BuzzFeed offices
General view of BuzzFeed's Hollywood offices on August 11, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.
AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

November brings with it changing foliage and Thanksgiving decorations. This year, you can add high-profile media deals to that list. The Wall Street Journal reports that BuzzFeed has purchased HuffPost via a stock deal. It’s arguably the biggest deal of its kind since Vox Media acquired New York last year.

In their Wall Street Journal article, Benjamin Mullin and Keach Hagey point out that the deal isn’t just about BuzzFeed acquiring HuffPost; instead, it’s part of a larger deal between BuzzFeed and Verizon Media, HuffPost’s previous parent company.

“Under the pact, the companies will syndicate content on each other’s platforms and look to jointly explore advertising opportunities,” Mullin and Hagey write. “Verizon Media will get a minority stake in BuzzFeed as a result of the tie-up, the companies said.”

As The Wall Street Journal points out, BuzzFeed founder and chief executive Jonah Peretti was one of the founders of HuffPost in 2005, before co-founding BuzzFeed a year later. Peretti has been a proponent of digital media consolidation for a few years now; this week, he seems to have put that philosophy into action.

In their article on the acquisition, The New York Times reported that BuzzFeed and HuffPost would each maintain distinct editorial staffs. Peretti also announced plans to hire an editor-in-chief for HuffPost in the near future. The site’s previous editor-in-chief, Lydia Polgreen, left HuffPost for Gimlet Media earlier this year.

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