Marijuana tech firm Leafly pivots from news journalism to consumer content

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Seattle-based cannabis e-commerce site Leafly Holdings is pivoting away from reporting on the marijuana industry and will instead focus on providing consumer-oriented content such as information about products.

“Our content will be more product and marketplace-driven … providing consumers with information they are looking for to help them make informed decisions about what cannabis to try and buy,” a company spokesperson told MJBizDaily.

The news was previously reported by WeedWeek and newsletter Cultivated.

Leafly’s pivot from journalism comes after the company laid off 40 employees earlier this month in conjunction with reporting its full-year and fourth-quarter financial results.

Senior Editor Bruce Barcott, who led the editorial team for the past seven years, announced on Twitter he was departing the company.

“It’s a really tough time for cannabis media,” journalist and former Leafly contributor Jackie Bryant wrote on LinkedIn.

Ben Adlin, a former Leafly news editor and senior editor who left the company in 2019, told MJBizDaily he was sorry to see the change.

“Leafly was relevant for a few years because they took cannabis journalism seriously at a time when even mainstream news outlets didn’t,” Adlin said.

“Apparently they think there’s more money to be made as the Yelp of weed. I’ll be curious to see how that works out.”

Shares of Leafly (LFLY) were trading on the Nasdaq at 40 cents on Tuesday afternoon.

In October, the company received a warning from the exchange that it had fallen below the $50 million market value minimum necessary to list on Nasdaq.

Leafly remains on the exchange’s list of noncompliant companies.

Leafly went public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in February 2022.

Kate Robertson can be reached at kate.robertson@mjbizdaily.com.