BuzzFeed Layoffs: One of Their First Indian Employees Imaan Sheikh Shares Her Story On Twitter, Gets Huge Support

BuzzFeed, one of the most popular entertainment and news websites has cut 15 percent of its workforce. Verizon that also owns HuffPost, Yahoo and AOL will be laying off more than 1,000 journalists across countries. Over 200 employees at Buzzfeed has been fired from their jobs. Imaan Sheikh, who was among the first Indian employees hired by the company has also been asked to leave.

She tweeted saying, "My time at BuzzFeed, after 4 years and 7 months, has come to an end. It was an incredible experience, even though I worked remotely for most of it. I'm thankful for what my coworkers (who are also my friends) have done for me. And you are welcome, too, @BuzzFeed." Digital Journalism Effect: Buzzfeed, Verizon Announce to Lay Off More Than 1,000 Journalists Globally.

Here is Imaan Sheikh's tweet:

She also tweeted saying that "in the past 34 days, three major things happened" in her life. Here is her tweet:

Her tweets were met with huge support from her social media followers. In fact, Faye D'Souza, Mirror Now Editor tweeted to her saying that she would like to meet her. Here is the tweet:

According to Washington Examiner, BuzzFeed recently came under scrutiny following their reports on Trump, directing his lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. Thereafter, a rare statement was issued by the special counsel Robert Mueller whose office said the article was "not accurate."

Following the news of BuzzFeed's layoff, US President Donald Trump tweeted saying: 'Ax falls quickly at BuzzFeed and Huffpost!" Headline, New York Post. Fake News and bad journalism have caused a big downturn. Sadly, many others will follow. The people want the Truth!'

Here is the tweet:

HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Lydia Polgreen reacted to Trump's tweet, saying the those who lost jobs did not deserve "cruelty" from the president. Polgreen tweeted: "One thousand journalists lost their jobs last week. Ordinary people with rent to pay, families to support, student loan bills coming due. They are workers like any other who do not deserve this cruelty." Walmart After Investing in Flipkart, May Layoff Many Jabong Employees & Merge it With Myntra.

BuzzFeed News Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith responded to Trump's tweet a "disgusting" reaction to journalists losing their jobs. He tweeted, "What a disgusting thing to say about dozens of American workers who just lost their jobs."

Following the layoff, over 400 BuzzFeed writers are asking the company to pay them out for earned time off which has been refused. The employees in a collective post on Medium writes, "[F]or a company that has always prided itself on treating its employees well, we unequivocally believe it is the only justifiable choice."

Check out the tweet below:

This is the second round of job cuts at BuzzFeed in the past 14 months. Earlier 100 people were laid off. The Guardian said, "The two giants are expected to take more than half of global ad spending by 2020 and Analyst EMarketer anticipates their market share to grow by 75 per cent between 2017 and 2020, compared with 15 per cent growth for other digital media companies." It further reads: "For many, podcasts are next. Last week, the Economist said it was expanding its audio team to eight employees; the Wall Street Journal is pursuing a similar initiative."

According to the Journal’s sources, one reason for the current development is to make it more profitable and to avoid another round of fundraising. Reportedly, in 2016, BuzzFeed raised around USD 500 million and was valued at USD 1.7 billion. Their main investors include Comcast's NBCUniversal which has invested USD 400 million. (With inputs from agencies)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 30, 2019 03:24 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).