BuzzFeed President Marcella Martin to resign, Marketing & Advertising News, ET BrandEquity

BuzzFeed’s Marcella Martin has announced her intention to step down as president, effective January 12, to pursue other opportunities, the digital media company announced Friday.

The company is unlikely to find a successor, as the president’s responsibilities will be passed on to the CEO or other executives.

Martin’s resignation follows the departure of Chief Financial Officer Felicia Delafortuna in November and was not due to disagreements with the company, the company said in a regulatory filing.

BuzzFeed, which closed its news division in April, was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Johnson and went public in 2021 in a blank check merger.

BuzzFeed’s news division, once seen as a serious challenger to traditional media companies and winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2021 for its reporting on China’s mass detention of Muslims, has struggled to find a business model that works. The company was unable to do so and continued to be in the red.

Like other digital media outlets, BuzzFeed relies on advertising and has been susceptible to poor performance as marketers have moved to TikTok and other social media platforms.

Ozzy Media last week sued Buzzfeed, along with another news outlet Semaphore and its founder Ben Smith, for allegedly stealing trade secrets from the now-shuttered U.S. media and entertainment company.