We have a new verb

I don’t know how long it’s been around, but I only spotted it today.
The verb is “to farewell”, and I assume it means to “bid farewell to”.
You can see the use of this wonderful new word here
As far as I can see the only reason for its use is to save ink in a newspaper, but since this is an online newspaper, there isn’t any ink to save, and therefore there’s no excuse.
What is it with the habit which verberises every noun under the sun?