CEO Jonah Peretti pushed back on rightwing Trumpist, saying he had ‘fundamental misunderstandings’ about the business

Vivek Ramaswamy, the former US Republican presidential candidate, urged BuzzFeed to cut staff and hire conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson after building a stake in the struggling online media firm.

In response Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed’s co-founder and CEO, claimed Ramaswamy had “some fundamental misunderstandings” about its business, but offered to meet with him.

Ramaswamy, a prominent rightwing supporter of Donald Trump and frequent media critic, now owns 8.4% of BuzzFeed after disclosing his investment last week.

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    Vivek Ramaswamy, the former US Republican presidential candidate, urged BuzzFeed to cut staff and hire conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson after building a stake in the struggling online media firm.

    Ramaswamy, a prominent rightwing supporter of Donald Trump and frequent media critic, now owns 8.4% of BuzzFeed after disclosing his investment last week.

    In a letter to BuzzFeed’s board in which he argued the business had “lost its way”, Ramaswamy – a biotech entrepreneur – called for a “major shift” in its strategy and vowed to buy more shares.

    BuzzFeed, which raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors in the early 2010s as it distributed viral stories across social networks including Facebook and Twitter (now X), has come under significant pressure as traffic from such platforms declined.

    In his letter, Ramaswamy urged BuzzFeed to implement widespread job cuts to “get back to startup size”, and focus on video and audio.

    Ramaswamy, who made his name in politics lambasting the environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda, recommended that BuzzFeed “be bold” and recruit prominent conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens as part of a bid to “challenge” its audience.


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