BuzzFeed Editor Quits After EIC Deletes Her Post Criticizing Advertising Partner

It’s official: Arabelle Sicardi, the author of a deleted BuzzFeed post criticizing a company that also happened to be advertising on the website, has handed in her resignation.

Gawker reports that editor-in-chief Ben Smith attempted to keep Sicardi, who was BuzzFeed’s full-time beauty editor, but she apparently refused after it emerged that Smith had deleted her post criticizing a Dove advertising campaign.

At the time, Smith defended his deletion, saying it was in line with the company’s policy against “hot takes,” but he later backed down and admitted that the deletion was “inappropriate.” Smith did, however, state that the decision had nothing to do with BuzzFeed’s advertisers.

The BuzzFeed chief sent an effusive letter to the staff announcing that Sicardi was leaving; and the editor herself had one response:

My formal statement on my leaving BuzzFeed: It's been real. pic.twitter.com/PUr7Kbsg64

— Arabelle Sicardi (@arabellesicardi) April 13, 2015

[Gawker]
[Image via Shutterstock]

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