Buzzfeed will reportedly cut 15% of its staff

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

• BuzzFeed is planning to cut 15% of its staff, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday. 
• The decision could cost 250 employees their jobs with the digital publisher. 

BuzzFeed is planning to cut 15% of its staff, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday. 

The decision could cost 250 employees their jobs with the digital publisher, people familiar with the matter told The Journal.

Sources also said BuzzFeed's choice to trim its workforce could be an effort by the company to get closer to profitability ahead of a potential merger with another digital media outlet. 

A memo from BuzzFeed CEO Johah Peretti - which was tweeted by Recode executive editor Peter Kafka - appears to confirm the Wall Street Journal's report.

"We are doing layoffs at BuzzFeed next week," Peretti wrote.

"Over the past few months, we've done extensive work examining the trends in our business and evolving economics of the digital platforms… We are confident the changes we are making will put us on a firm foundation and allow us to invest and grow sustainably for years to come."

In the memo, Peretti points out that over the last year the company had "diversif[ied] our revenue and [grew] our business double digits. Unfortunately, revenue growth by itself isn't enough to be successful in the long run."

The BuzzFeed chief exec said he would have more details regarding the layoffs by next Monday at the latest.