Monday, May 12, 2014

15 Cliches In Buzzfeed President's Departure Memo*

From Quartz:
The departure memo is almost always an exercise in corporate tiptoeing, served with a minimum of specific information and a healthy dose of cliché.
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The one announcing that Buzzfeed president and COO Jon Steinberg will be stepping down from his position at the internet media company, but continuing as an advisor, is no exception....MORE
Jon and I want to share some important news with you. Jon has decided after four years of being President and COO of BuzzFeed, it’s time for him to move on to new ventures and challenges and will be moving into an advisor role at BuzzFeed. As you know, Jon was instrumental in building BuzzFeed into the great company we are today; joining as the 15th employee in a tiny SoHo office , defining and growing our innovative social content advertising products, helping grow the company to 500 employees all over the world and building a strong, profitable operation. After four spectacular years at BuzzFeed, Jon has decided it’s time to move on but we will miss him a huge amount. I thought you would be interested to know that Jon will join Lerer Ventures as an advisor so he will very much remain part of the family. He will also be pursuing new challenges in the web and media space.
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We will miss having him in the office every day, though we’re delighted he will be an advisor to BuzzFeed transitioning his work with all of you.
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Both of us believe we have all built something special here, and the company is in spectacular shape and primed for even greater things in the future.
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We’re so thankful for Jon’s leadership that helped get us here. He will always be family to us. We are growing and continuing our mission of building a media company that is anchored around social, and a business that is transforming the advertising industry.
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We think the best days are ahead for BuzzFeed . Thank you all for your hard work and we’re excited about pressing forward to continue to do huge things! Jon will say his own good-byes to you over the next few weeks but even after that he will be available to us.
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Onward,
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Jonah and Jon
*See what we did there?