Byron Allen's first major restructuring since taking majority control of BuzzFeed involves laying off roughly 180 staffers across BuzzFeed, HuffPost, and Tasty. The company had approximately 510 employees before cuts. Leadership memo cites need for "profitable and sustainable growth" after March earnings call expressed "substantial doubt" about continuing as a going concern.

Allen invested $26 million to stabilize the company, then acquired a 52% stake for $120 million ($20M cash, $100M promissory note) in May, replacing founder Jonah Peretti as CEO. BuzzFeed reported nearly 20% decline in ad revenue YoY, with Q2 net loss of $15.1M vs $12.5M prior year. Allen Media Group (2,000 employees) also laid off staff in 2024 and sold ~1/3 of TV stations for $171M.

Allen aims to transform the business around free streaming platform Local Now fueled by BuzzFeed/HuffPost content, and pursue Starz via hostile takeover if needed. BuzzFeed still draws 27.5 million unique monthly visitors (Comscore), though less than People (61M) or USA Today (40M). Peretti moves to run BuzzFeed AI division.

Allen's "Comics Unleashed" took over Colbert's Late Show slot in a time-buy deal, averaging under 1M viewers vs Late Show's 2.9M average. Allen pitched CBS savings of $30-40M.