WASHINGTON (WASHINGTON POST) - BuzzFeed plans to eliminate 100 jobs, or about 8 per cent of its workforce, according to a person familiar with the matter, as the online publisher feels the effects of an industrywide slump in advertising.

The company will fire marketing, advertising and creative workers in the US and Britain, chief executive officer Jonah Peretti said in a memo on Wednesday (Nov 29).

Greg Coleman, who has been president of BuzzFeed for the last three-and-a-half years, will become a senior adviser, and BuzzFeed will begin a search for a new chief operating officer, Peretti said.

BuzzFeed and publishers from Time to Uproxx have been turning to investments in original video in search of online advertising riches as Facebook and Google vacuum up the vast majority of spending.

BuzzFeed will miss its revenue target of about US$350 million (S$470 million) this year by as much as 20 per cent, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported the layoffs earlier Wednesday.

The closely held company, which was valued at about US$1.7 billion last year after a US$200 million investment from NBCUniversal, will devote more resources to developing lifestyle brands such as food site Tasty and the travel-themed Bring Me, Peretti said.