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BuzzFeed Inc.
BZFD,
is set to name its top culture editor, Karolina Waclawiak, as editor in chief of its newsroom, people familiar with the matter said, tapping a veteran insider to lead a division that has been dealing with changes in leadership and strategy.
Ms. Waclawiak, who has been with BuzzFeed for six years, will take over a newsroom that cut its teeth on big investigative swings—including a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles about China’s infrastructure for detaining Muslims in its Xinjiang region—but has been shrinking of late as the now-public BuzzFeed is looking to boost profitability.
BuzzFeed’s shares have lost more than 80% of their value since the company went public in December. When it posted its first earnings report as a public company in March, BuzzFeed announced the top two leaders of its news division, BuzzFeed News Editor in Chief Mark Schoofs and his deputy, Tom Namako, had resigned. In a note to staff, Mr. Schoofs said the company had “subsidized BuzzFeed News for many years” and said the news division would undergo a strategic shift. “That will require BuzzFeed News to once again shrink in size.”
BuzzFeed is now giving priority to coverage of “biggest news of the day, culture and entertainment, celebrity and life on the internet,” BuzzFeed founder and Chief Executive Jonah Peretti said on a March call to discuss the results.
An expanded version of this story appears on WSJ.com.
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