Independent reaches deal to take over BuzzFeed in the UK

By August Graham, PA Business Reporter

The company behind the Independent will take over BuzzFeed and the HuffPost in the UK as part of a deal which brings together several major online brands.

Independent Digital News and Media said on Thursday that it had reached an agreement with US-based BuzzFeed Inc which will create a “digital supergroup.”

The group will be managed by the Independent and staff from BuzzFeed UK, HuffPost and Tasty UK will move over to the online news publication.

BuzzFeed and the other platforms will continue to operate as separate websites after the deal, the companies said.

“The Independent’s growth and outstanding success story over the last decade has been built on bold moves, and our partnership with BuzzFeed represents a new leap forward for our business,” said Independent chief executive Christian Broughton.

The two brands were both once challengers to the traditional media landscape, though appeared at very different times.

The Independent started printing in 1986, and just years later had overtaken the circulation of more established competitors such as the Times. It built its appeal particularly with younger voters.

But even before the internet upended the print news market, the newspaper had started to lose ground amid a broadsheet pricing war.

By 2016, the online age had come and the Independent printed its last ever paper copy.

This was 10 years after BuzzFeed was founded in the US. The company was always online-only and just like the Independent appealed to a younger audience.

Last year, it announced a plan to shut down its news operations and instead weave its news coverage into the Huffington Post, which it bought in 2020.

Richard Alan Reid, from BuzzFeed, said: “The synergies between our companies have been clear from day one, and we know this partnership will unlock new business, drive growth and ultimately take both companies’ brands to the next level in the UK and Ireland.”