To weather the coronavirus crisis, Buzzfeed cuts salaries

As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe, Buzzfeed plans to slash salaries in order to avoid lay-offs.

According to the Daily Beast, an internal memo announced a "graduated salary reduction for the majority of employees for the months of April and May, adding that company brass would meet with the news union to ratify the cuts".

Employees earning less than $65,000 per year (the lowest bracket) will experience five percent paycuts. Those earning between $65,000 and $90,000 will experience seven percent cuts. Other staff will take a nearly 10 percent paycut, the report said, while executives will have a paycut of 14 to 25 percent.

Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti will not take a salary "until we are on the other side of this crisis".

Daily Beast reports: "While in the past BuzzFeed News staffers have occasionally chafed at Peretti’s approach to cuts, multiple BuzzFeed News staffers expressed slight relief that the company did not announce layoffs, and that Peretti himself would be making sacrifices."

The pandemic has hit the media industry hard. Across the US, local papers and alternative weeklies have laid off staff and closed down print editions. Two Australian local newspapers shut down earlier this week.

In India, several publications have stopped their print editions, including Mid-Day, the Mumbai edition of the Times of India, and Outlook magazine. With the 21-day lockdown, it raises the bigger question of whether newspapers can weather the coronavirus crisis.

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