Vivek Ramaswamy's plans for Buzz Feed are becoming a little clearer, as the entrepreneur-turned-activist-investor releases a lengthy letter outlining what he thinks the company should do to better itself.
Ramaswamy revealed significant activist commitment in BuzzFeed last week. In his letter On Monday, Ramaswamy said he has since increased his stake to 8.37 percent.
In an emailed response on Monday, Ramaswamy also addressed BuzzFeed's CEO Jonah Peretti offered to meet “to better explain the strategy we outlined on our recent earnings calls, and why we are so confident it will create the most value.”
In his letter, Ramaswamy called for three new board seats and drastic cost cuts.
“Rather than making cuts at the top, the company should start from scratch and retain only the resources necessary to create and monetize BuzzFeed's most valuable content,” he wrote. “This will almost certainly require large-scale workforce reductions, dumping your outdated business model for digitized printing and divesting assets to repay debt.”
He also said BuzzFeed should focus on creator-led content, citing BuzzFeed's YouTube series Hot as a success story to be repeated.
“Go for talents across the entire political and cultural spectrum. Be brave. Don't be afraid to challenge your audience,” he wrote. “From Candace Owens to Destiny, Tucker Carlson to Bill Maher, Aaron Rodgers to Charles Barkley, no talent should be off limits to platform, hiring or acquisition.”
He also called on Buzzfeed to restore its brand by apologizing for past media reporting, citing the publication of the Steele Dossier and stories about Hunter Biden and Kevin Spacey. Instead, Ramaswamy suggested that the company make a statement along the lines of:
“We have failed in our obligation to tell you the truth. Through both negligence and conciliation, we have repeatedly lied on issues of national importance, and so has the rest of the media. We repeated simple, politically convenient stories in search of clicks. We did not do the fact check. We are no longer intellectually curious. We have lost sight of fairness. We have condemned half the country instead of trying to understand their views and report them honestly.”
Peretti, in his response, strongly disagreed with Ramaswamy's views.
“Based on your letter, you have some fundamental misunderstandings about the drivers of our company, the values of our audience, and the company's mission,” Peretti wrote. “I am very skeptical that it makes good business sense to turn BuzzFeed into a platform for inflammatory political pundits. And we're certainly not going to apologize for our Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism.
“That said, I welcome outside perspectives from shareholders and am open to hearing more from you,” he added, before offering to schedule a meeting.