Top BuzzFeed News editor Mark Schoofs will leave the newsroom first

The head of BuzzFeed News and two other top editors will leave the company before the deadline to move to the newsroom.

Mark Schoofs, who becomes editor-in-chief in 2020, said in an email Tuesday to employees that he will be stepping down. He said that Tom Namako, deputy editor, and Ariel Kaminer, investigative editor in chief, would also leave the company. Namako said in a tweet that he will be joining NBC Digital as executive editor.

Mr. Schoofs said in the email that BuzzFeed News’ “next phase” is accelerating its time to become profitable and that it will need to shrink to do so. He said the company hopes to achieve this through voluntary acquisitions rather than layoffs.

Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed’s chief executive officer, said in a separate email to employees on Tuesday that BuzzFeed News will need to “prioritize the areas of coverage with which our audience is most connected.”

Mr. Peretti said Samantha Henig, BuzzFeed News’ executive strategy editor, will act as interim editor-in-chief.

He announced further job cuts on the BuzzFeed video team and the editorial team at Complex Networks, a lifestyle publisher that BuzzFeed acquired last year, and said he would also cut the business team. and administrative.

“The cuts affect about 1.7 percent of our total workforce today, and we don’t take it lightly,” Mr. Peretti wrote.

BuzzFeed, the parent company of BuzzFeed News, reported earnings for the first time on Tuesday as a public company after it began trading on the Nasdaq on Dec. 6. It said revenue had rose 18% to $145 million in the most recent quarter, year over year. Profit increased to $41.6 million, up 29% year-on-year.