Jump to content

BuzzFeed

Checked
Page protected with pending changes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from BuzzFeedVideo)

BuzzFeed, Inc.
FormerlyBuzzFeed Laboratories (2006–2016)
Company typePublic
NasdaqBZFD
ISINUS12430A1025
IndustryOnline media
FoundedNovember 1, 2006; 18 years ago (2006-11-01)
Founders
Headquarters,
U.S.
Key people
Products
  • Entertainment
  • News
RevenueDecrease US$253 million (2023)[1]
Negative increase −US$40 million (2023)[1]
Negative increase −US$89 million (2023)[1]
Total assetsDecrease US$411 million (2023)[1]
Total equityDecrease US$109 million (2023)[1]
Number of employees
925 (December 2023)[1]
SubsidiariesHuffPost
Websitebuzzfeed.com

BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City,[2] BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Kenneth Lerer, co-founder and chairman of The Huffington Post, started as a co-founder and investor in BuzzFeed and is now the executive chairman.

Originally known for online quizzes, "listicles", and pop culture articles, the company has grown into a global media and technology company, providing coverage on a variety of topics including politics, DIY, animals, and business.[3][4] BuzzFeed generates revenue through native advertising, a strategy that helps increase the likelihood of viewers reading through the content of advertisements.[5]

In late 2011, BuzzFeed hired Ben Smith of Politico as editor-in-chief, to expand the site into long-form journalism and reportage under the BuzzFeed News banner.[6] After years of investment in investigative journalism, by 2021 BuzzFeed News had won the National Magazine Award,[7] the George Polk Award,[8] and the Pulitzer Prize,[9] and was nominated for the Michael Kelly Award.[7] BuzzFeed News later moved to its own domain rather than existing as a section of the main BuzzFeed website.[10] On April 20, 2023, Peretti announced that BuzzFeed would be shuttering BuzzFeed News and focusing its news efforts into HuffPost, laying off about 180 workers.[11]

A 2014 Pew Research Center survey found that in the United States, BuzzFeed was viewed as an unreliable source by the majority of respondents, regardless of age or political affiliation.[12] The company's audience has been described as left-leaning.[13]

History

[edit]
Jonah Peretti founded BuzzFeed in November 2006.

Prior to establishing BuzzFeed, Peretti was director of research and development and the OpenLab at Eyebeam, Johnson's New York City-based art and technology nonprofit organization, where he experimented with other viral media.[14][15]

In 2006, while working at the Huffington Post, Peretti started BuzzFeed (originally called BuzzFeed Laboratories)[16] as a side project, in partnership with his former supervisor John Johnson. In the beginning, BuzzFeed employed no writers or editors, just an "algorithm to cull stories from around the web that were showing stirrings of virality."[17] The site initially launched an instant messaging client, BuzzBot, which sent users a link to popular content. The messages were sent based on algorithms which examined the links that were being quickly disseminated, scouring through the feeds of hundreds of blogs that were aggregating them[citation needed]. Later, the site began spotlighting the most popular links that BuzzBot found. Peretti hired curators to help describe the content that was popular around the web.[18] In 2011, Peretti hired Politico's Ben Smith, who earlier had achieved much attention as a political blogger, to assemble a news operation in addition to the many aggregated "listicles".[19]

In 2016, BuzzFeed formally separated its news and entertainment content into BuzzFeed News and the newly formed BuzzFeed Entertainment Group, which also includes BuzzFeed Motion Pictures.[20][21] As of 2016, BuzzFeed had correspondents from 12 countries,[22] and foreign editions in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the United Kingdom.[23] By the end of 2017, BuzzFeed employed around 1,700 employees worldwide, although it announced plans in November of that year to lay off around 100 employees in the US, 45 in the UK,[24][25][26] and 100 in France in June 2018.[27]

On January 23, 2019, BuzzFeed notified all employees via memo that there would be an upcoming 15% reduction in workforce affecting the international, web content, and news divisions of the company. The layoffs would affect approximately 200 employees.[28] In 2020, BuzzFeed signed a deal with Universal Television to produce content based on its stories.[29]

Three top BuzzFeed News editors in March 2022 announced that they would be resigning and the newsroom would face voluntary layoffs or job cuts.[30] The cuts came after BuzzFeed investors encouraged Peretti to shut down all of BuzzFeed News, but he refused, CNBC reported.[31]

Funding

[edit]

BuzzFeed raised $3.5 million in 2008 through Hearst Ventures and Softbank.[32] In 2011, BuzzFeed ran more than 100 social media campaigns, resulting in their revenue tripling compared to 2010.[32] In January 2012, BuzzFeed announced that it had earned $15.5 million in funding from New Enterprise Associates, Lerer Ventures, Hearst Interactive Media, Softbank, and RRE Capital to expand the site's content.[33] Later, in October 2012, BuzzFeed ran sponsored content for the Obama administration leading to an increase in ad revenue.[34] By January 2013, BuzzFeed announced that New Enterprise Associates had raised $19.3 million.[35] The company was reported to be profitable in 2013.[36]

In 2014, it was reported that BuzzFeed had passed $100 million in revenue.[37][38] In August 2014, BuzzFeed raised $50 million from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, more than doubling previous rounds of funding.[39][40] The site was reportedly valued at around $850 million by Andreessen Horowitz.[39] BuzzFeed generates its advertising revenue through native advertising that matches its editorial content, and does not rely on banner ads.[18] BuzzFeed also uses its familiarity with social media to target conventional advertising through other channels, such as Facebook.[41] In December 2014, growth equity firm General Atlantic acquired $50 million in secondary stock of the company.[42]

In August 2015, NBCUniversal made a $200 million equity investment in BuzzFeed.[43] Along with plans to hire more journalists to build a more prominent "investigative" unit, BuzzFeed planned on hiring journalists around the world and plans to open outposts in India, Germany, Mexico, and Japan.[44] It planned on hiring staff for its UK bureau, its rapidly-expanding motion picture unit and its food-themed business, Tasty.[45][46] NBCUniversal invested an additional $200 million in 2016 after the two companies had collaborated on many projects, namely the Rio Olympics.[38] The companies planned to work together to market themselves to advertisers.[38] Together, Comcast and its NBCUniversal subsidiary own about a third of BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed has said that it intends to stay independent.[47]

After laying off 100 employees in 2017, BuzzFeed laid off 200 of its employees in 2019 to help facilitate growth despite raising revenue by 15% from 2017 to 2018.[48] Facebook began funding two BuzzFeed News shows in 2019 for Watch.[48] Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, on March 25, 2020, BuzzFeed announced in an internal memo that it would cut employee salaries on a sliding scale of 5% (lowest income bracket) up to 25% (highest income bracket). Peretti said he would not be taking a salary until the end of the pandemic. Many staffers expressed relief at this announcement as there were no layoffs.[49] On May 13, 2020, the company shut down its divisions in the UK and Australia, furloughing 10 news staff in the UK as well as four in its Australian outpost.[50][51]

According to a news from June 24, 2021 on Variety, BuzzFeed, valued at $1.5 billion through a SPAC deal, is to go public and acquire Complex Networks for $300 million.[52][53][54]

BuzzFeed raised $16.2M in its latest funding round, which was Post IPO round held on Dec 03, 2021.[55]

Acquisitions and stock listing

[edit]

BuzzFeed's first acquisition was in 2012 when the company purchased Kingfish Labs, a startup founded by Rob Fishman, initially focused on optimizing Facebook ads.[56]

In October 2014, BuzzFeed announced its next acquisition, Torando Labs, which would become BuzzFeed's first data-engineering team.[57]

On November 19, 2020, BuzzFeed announced that they would acquire HuffPost in a stock deal that made Verizon Media minority shareholder in BuzzFeed.[58][59][60]

In June 2021, BuzzFeed announced its plans to go public via a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and planned to acquire Complex Networks.[61] After initially listing on Nasdaq at $10 a share, valuing the company at around $1.5 billion, the share price subsequently declined to under $1 by 2023, leading to a delisting notice by Nasdaq in May 2023, requiring them to raise the share price above $1 within 180 days or risk being removed from the exchange.[62] Once the deadline for this notice passed in November 2023 with the stock price still below $1, they were given a further 180 days until May 2024.[63] By January 2024, the stock price of the company had declined 98% since its initial listing, with the entire company now only worth around $37 million, and the company was significantly burdened with debt.[64] In May 2024, BuzzFeed implemented a 4:1 reverse stock split, bringing them above the $1 a share threshold.[65]

According to Reuters, British media group The Independent is reportedly discussing a multi-year agreement to acquire control of BuzzFeed and Huffington Post's operations in the UK and Ireland.[66]

Divestitures

[edit]

In February 2024, BuzzFeed announced the sale of Complex to NTWRK, a livestream shopping platform, even as it would retain some popular franchises. At the same time, it reportedly considered selling Tasty, a social media food brand. The moves marked a retreat for the company after its December 2021 public listing done to finance acquisitions and came during a difficult period for media companies. It also announced layoffs.[67][68][69][70] In July 2024, the company sold travel-brand Bring Me! to media publisher LOST iN.[71]

Vivek Ramaswamy investment

[edit]

In May 2024, activist investor Vivek Ramaswamy acquired a 7.7% stake in BuzzFeed, making him the fourth-largest shareholder,[72] which he later increased to 8.37%.[73] Ramaswamy said that he thought the company was undervalued,[74] and that he wanted to shift the company's political leanings,[73] such by hiring right-wing media personalities.[75] Elizabeth Lopatto, writing in The Verge, called his effort futile, as voting power in Buzzfeed is primarily in Class B shares, which have 50 times the voting power of the common Class A shares Ramaswamy had purchased. 90% of Class B shares are held by founder Peretti and close associates, meaning that Ramaswamy has little voting power despite his large shareholding.[76]

Content

[edit]

BuzzFeed produces daily content, in which the work of staff reporters, contributors, syndicated cartoon artists, and its community are featured. Popular formats on the website include lists, videos, and quizzes. The style of such content inspired the parody website ClickHole.[3][77] While BuzzFeed initially was focused exclusively on such viral content, according to The New York Times, "it added more traditional content, building a track record for delivering breaking news and deeply reported articles" in the years up to 2014.[78] In that year, BuzzFeed deleted over 4000 early posts, "apparently because, as time passed, they looked stupider and stupider", as observed by The New Yorker.[79]

BuzzFeed consistently ranked at the top of NewsWhip's "Facebook Publisher Rankings" from December 2013 to April 2014, until The Huffington Post entered the position.[80]

News

[edit]

BuzzFeed's news division began in December 2011 with the appointment of Ben Smith as editor-in-chief. In 2013, Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Schoofs of ProPublica was hired as head of investigative reporting.[81] By 2016, BuzzFeed had 20 investigative journalists.[7] Chief executive Jonah Peretti announced the BuzzFeed News division would close on April 20, 2023.[82][83]

Video

[edit]

BuzzFeed Video, BuzzFeed Motion Picture's flagship YouTube channel,[84] produces original content. Its production studio and team are based in Los Angeles. Since hiring Ze Frank in 2012, BuzzFeed Video has produced several video series, including "The Try Guys". In August 2014, the company announced a new division, BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, which may produce feature-length films.[78] As of September 1, 2021, BuzzFeed Video's YouTube channel had garnered more than 17.4 billion views and more than 20.3 million subscribers.[85] BuzzFeed later announced that YouTube signed on for two feature-length series to be created by BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, entitled Broke and Squad Wars.[86]

Podcasts

[edit]

BuzzFeed started an in-house podcasting team in 2015, through which the podcasts Another Round and Internet Explorer were developed and launched.[87] In September 2018, BuzzFeed shut down its podcast department and laid off the staff due to a lack of desired ad revenue. It cancelled most of its podcasts, including See Something, Say Something.[88][89] In late January 2019, they fired 200 staff across the company and cancelled the remaining podcast, Thirst Aid Kit.[88]

Former podcasts
  • Another Round
  • Internet Explorer
  • The News
  • See Something, Say Something
  • Thirst Aid Kit
  • Reporting To You
  • Rerun
  • The Tell Show
  • Women of the Hour

Community

[edit]

On July 17, 2012, humor website McSweeney's Internet Tendency published a satirical piece entitled "Suggested BuzzFeed Articles",[90] prompting BuzzFeed to create many of the suggestions.[91][92][93][94] BuzzFeed listed McSweeney's as a "Community Contributor".[91] The post subsequently received more than 350,000 page views,[92] prompted BuzzFeed to ask for user submissions,[91][95] and received media attention.[92][93][95][96] Subsequently, the website launched the "Community" section in May 2013 to enable users to submit content. Users initially are limited to publishing only one post per day, but may increase their submission capacity by raising their "Cat Power",[97] described on the BuzzFeed website as "an official measure of your rank in BuzzFeed's Community." A user's Cat Power increases as they achieve greater prominence on the site.[98]

In January 2017, BuzzFeed's user-generated community content accumulated 100 million views.[99]

In February 2019, BuzzFeed News voted to unionize, following major layoffs. A dispute between BuzzFeed's upper executives and the union began when the executives failed to show up to a meeting.[100]

Technology and social media

[edit]

BuzzFeed receives the majority of its traffic by creating content that is shared on social media websites. BuzzFeed works by judging their content on how viral it will become, operating in a "continuous feedback loop" where all of its articles and videos are used as input for its sophisticated data operation.[41] The site continues to test and track their custom content with an in-house team of data scientists and an external-facing "social dashboard". Using an algorithm dubbed "Viral Rank" created by Jonah Peretti and Duncan Watts, the company uses this formula to let editors, users, and advertisers try many different ideas, which maximizes distribution.[101] Staff writers are ranked by views on an internal leaderboard. In 2014, BuzzFeed received 75% of its views from links on social media outlets such as Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook.[18][78]

Tasty

[edit]

BuzzFeed's video series on comfort food, Tasty, is made for Facebook, where it has 100 million followers as of December 2019.[102] The channel has substantially more views than BuzzFeed's dedicated food site.[103] The channel included five spinoff segments: "Tasty Junior"—which eventually spun off into its own page,[104] "Tasty Happy Hour" (alcoholic beverages), "Tasty Fresh", "Tasty Vegetarian", and "Tasty Story"—which has celebrities making and discussing their own recipes. Tasty has also released a cookbook.[105]

The company also operates international versions of Tasty.[106] Tasty has also released its own kitchenware, which includes several products such as spatulas, cooking sheets, and mixing bowls. These products are sold in collaboration with Walmart.[107]Tasty also sells their "One Top", which is a smart induction cooktop,[108] as well as "Tasty Kits", which are kits that contains cooking items for cooking at home.[109]

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, "Tasty" streamed the Saturday Night Seder, an online Passover Seder that featured many celebrities and benefited the CDC Foundation.

Worth It

[edit]

Since 2016, Tasty also sponsors a show named Worth It starring Steven Lim, Andrew Ilnyckyj, and Adam Bianchi.[110] In each episode, the trio visit three different food places with three drastically different price points in one food category. Steven Lim also stars in BuzzFeed Blue's "Worth It – Lifestyle" videos. The series is similar, in that three items or experiences are valued from different companies, each at their different price point, but focus on material items and experiences, such as plane seats, hotel rooms, and haircuts. Lim left BuzzFeed in 2019 to start his own production company Watcher.[111][112]

BuzzFeed Unsolved

[edit]

BuzzFeed Unsolved was the most successful web series on BuzzFeed's BuzzFeed Multiplayer. The show was created by Ryan Bergara and features both him and Shane Madej (who replaced original co-host Brent Bennett). The show covers some of history's most famous unsolved mysteries, presenting them and the theories that surround them in a comedic manner. In some episodes, they visit the places involved with the mystery. Many of these episodes focus on the supernatural or paranormal and often include the pair ghost hunting during the investigations. In late 2019, Bergara and Madej started their own digital production company, Watcher Entertainment, with Worth It's Steven Lim; however, the two continued collaborating with BuzzFeed to produce BuzzFeed Unsolved until November 2021. The spiritual successor to BuzzFeed Unsolved is Ghost Files, a documentary entertainment web series by Watcher Entertainment that was first released on September 23, 2022.

The Try Guys

[edit]

The Try Guys are a trio of friends (Eugene Lee Yang, Zach Kornfeld, Keith Habersberger, and formerly Ned Fulmer) who put themselves in different, and at times, compromising situations and record the results.[113] In June 2018, the four left BuzzFeed and created their own independent channel, also titled "The Try Guys".[114]

Night In/Night Out

[edit]

Night In/Night Out was a series run by Ned and Ariel Fulmer. This show features the couple on two different dates, one at home featuring a homemade meal (using a BuzzFeed Tasty Recipe) and one at a restaurant in the Los Angeles area. Each episode focuses on one particular meal, such as baked salmon or hamburgers. At the end of each episode, Ned and Ariel would decide whether they preferred the home-cooked meal (and the accompanying ambiance and price tag) or the meal at the restaurant. However, the couple left BuzzFeed with the Try Guys in 2018, and the series was subsequently canceled.[115]

Short-form animation

[edit]

Around 2017, BuzzFeed launched Animation Lab with a focus on short-form animation content that is posted on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and later YouTube and Twitter. The studio has launched 30 projects during its existence, 4 of which have since been focused on due to finding success (Weird Helga, The Good Advice Cupcake, The Land of Boggs, and Chikn Nuggit), which as of 2021 had a combined total of over 17 million followers.[116][117]

In January 2024, a lot of the Animation Lab team were laid off (including Loryn Brantz), leading to the cancellations of Weird Helga and The Good Advice Cupcake.

Notable stories

[edit]

"The dress"

[edit]

The most interesting thing to me is that it traveled. It went from New York media circle-jerk Twitter to international. And you could see it in my Twitter notifications because people started having conversations in, like, Spanish and Portuguese and then Japanese and Chinese and Thai and Arabic. It was amazing to watch this move from a local thing to, like, a massive international phenomenon.[118]

Cates Holderness

In February 2015, a post resulting in a debate over the color of an item of clothing from BuzzFeed's Tumblr editor Cates Holderness garnered more than 28 million views in one day, setting a record for most concurrent visitors to a BuzzFeed post.[119] Holderness had shown the picture to other members of the site's social media team, who immediately began arguing about the dress colors among themselves. After creating a simple poll for users of the site, she left work and took the subway back to her Brooklyn home. When she got off the train and checked her telephone, it was overwhelmed by the messages on various sites. "I couldn't open Twitter because it kept crashing. I thought somebody had died, maybe. I didn't know what was going on." Later in the evening the page set a new record at BuzzFeed for concurrent visitors, which reached 673,000 at its peak.[118][120]

Watermelon stunt

[edit]

On April 8, 2016, two BuzzFeed interns created a live stream on Facebook, during which rubber bands were wrapped one by one around a watermelon until the pressure caused it to explode. The Daily Dot compared it to something from America's Funniest Home Videos or by the comedian Gallagher, and "just as stupid-funny, but with incredible immediacy and zero production costs". The video is seen as part of Facebook's strategy to shift to live video, Facebook Live, to counter the rise of Snapchat and Periscope among a younger audience.[121]

Criticism

[edit]

Plagiarism

[edit]
Benny Johnson was fired from BuzzFeed in July 2014 for plagiarism.

BuzzFeed has been accused of plagiarizing original content from competitors from the online and offline press. In June 2012, Gawker's Adrian Chen observed that one of BuzzFeed's most popular writers—Matt Stopera—frequently copied and pasted "chunks of text into lists without attribution."[122] In March 2013, The Atlantic Wire also reported several "listicles" had apparently been copied from Reddit and other websites.[123] In July 2014, BuzzFeed writer Benny Johnson was accused of multiple instances of plagiarism.[124] Two anonymous Twitter users chronicled Johnson attributing work that was not his own, but "directly lift[ed] from other reporters, Wikipedia, and Yahoo! Answers", all without credit.[125] BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith initially defended Johnson, calling him a "deeply original writer".[126] Days later, Smith acknowledged that Johnson had plagiarized the work of others 40 times and announced that Johnson had been fired, apologizing to BuzzFeed readers. "Plagiarism, much less copying unchecked facts from Wikipedia or other sources, is an act of disrespect to the reader", Smith said. "We are deeply embarrassed and sorry to have misled you."[126] In total, 41 instances of plagiarism were found and corrected.[127] In 2016, claims surfaced of the YouTube channel BuzzFeedVideo stealing ideas and content from other creators.[128]

BuzzFeed has been the subject of multiple copyright infringement lawsuits, for both using content it had no rights to and encouraging its proliferation without attributing its sources: one for an individual photographer's photograph,[129] and another for nine celebrity photographs from a single photography company.[130]

In June 2020, BuzzFeed News senior reporter Ryan Broderick was fired after it was revealed he had "plagiarized or misattributed information in at least 11 of his articles."[131]

Reputation as a news site

[edit]

In October 2014, a Pew Research Center survey[132] found that in the United States, BuzzFeed was viewed as an unreliable source by the majority of people, regardless of political affiliation.[133][134] Adweek noted that most respondents had not heard of BuzzFeed, and many users do not consider BuzzFeed a news site.[135] In a subsequent Pew report based on 2014 surveys,[136] BuzzFeed was among the least trusted sources by millennials.[137][138] A 2016 study by the Columbia Journalism Review found readers less likely to trust a story (originally published in Mother Jones) that appeared to originate on BuzzFeed than the same article on The New Yorker website.[139] In a 2017 survey among US readers, BuzzFeed was voted the second least trustworthy source among American readers, with Occupy Democrats being lower-ranked.[140]

In January 2017, BuzzFeed again faced widespread criticism from many journalists and media officials, along with then-President elect Donald Trump, for publishing 35 pages of unverified memos in full, known as the Steele dossier.[141][142][143][144] In a highly publicized press conference following the publication of the memos, Trump referred to BuzzFeed as a "failing pile of garbage".[145] Among the unverified claims in the memos was one that stated Trump's attorney Michael Cohen had met in August 2016 with Russian officials in Prague, Czech Republic, a claim that Cohen has vehemently denied.[142][146]

On January 18, 2019, Robert Mueller's office disputed a BuzzFeed report stating that Trump instructed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. A spokesman for Mueller's office characterized the BuzzFeed report as "not accurate".[147]

Unpaid contributors

[edit]

Matthew Perpetua, BuzzFeed's director of quizzes, published a blog post in January 2019 after being laid off, revealing that many of the site's most popular quizzes were created by unpaid contributors.[148] Perpetua identified one college student in Michigan in particular as "the second-highest traffic driver worldwide."[149] The student, Rachel McMahon, said that until she saw Perpetua's blog post, she never knew that her quizzes were so significant for BuzzFeed's traffic. The quizzes made an estimated $3.8 million for the media company.[150] According to the Detroit Free Press, she had never asked BuzzFeed about getting paid and the only material goods she received from them were four $30 Amazon gift certificates, a BuzzFeed sweatshirt and T-shirt and several water bottles.[151][152]

Advertiser influence on editorial

[edit]

In April 2015, BuzzFeed drew scrutiny after Gawker observed the publication had deleted two posts that criticized advertisers.[153] One of the posts criticized Dove soap (manufactured by Unilever), while another criticized Hasbro.[154] Both companies advertise with BuzzFeed. Ben Smith apologized in a memo to staff for his actions: "I blew it. Twice in the past couple of months, I've asked editors—over their better judgment and without any respect to our standards or process—to delete recently published posts from the site. Both involved the same thing: my overreaction to questions we've been wrestling with about the place of personal opinion pieces on our site. I reacted impulsively when I saw the posts and I was wrong to do that. We've reinstated both with a brief note".[155] Days later, Arabelle Sicardi, one of the authors of the deleted posts, resigned.[156] An internal review by the company found three additional posts deleted for being critical of products or advertisements (by Microsoft, Pepsi, and Unilever).[157]

In 2016, the Advertising Standards Authority of the United Kingdom ruled that BuzzFeed broke the UK advertising rules for failing to make it clear that an article on "14 Laundry Fails We've All Experienced" that promoted Dylon was an online advertorial paid for by the brand.[158][159] Although the ASA agreed with BuzzFeed's defense that links to the piece from its homepage and search results clearly labelled the article as "sponsored content", this failed to take into account that individuals might link to the story directly, ruling that the labeling "was not sufficient to make clear that the main content of the web page was an advertorial and that editorial content was therefore retained by the advertiser".[159][160]

Hiring practices

[edit]

In February 2016, Scaachi Koul, a Senior Writer for BuzzFeed Canada, tweeted a request for pitches stating that BuzzFeed was "...looking for mostly non-white non-men" followed by "If you are a white man upset that we are looking mostly for non-white non-men I don't care about you go write for Maclean's." When confronted, she followed with the tweet "White men are still permitted to pitch, I will read it, I will consider it. I'm just less interested because, ugh, men." In response to the tweets that were deemed racist and sexist, Koul began receiving a barrage of hate comments and threats of violence.[161][162] Sarmishta Subramanian, a former colleague of Koul's, writing for Maclean's, condemned the reaction to the tweets, and stated that Koul's request for diversity was appropriate. Subramanian said that her provocative approach raised concerns of tokenism that might hamper BuzzFeed's stated goals.[163] In January 2019, BuzzFeed announced that it would cut its workforce by 15%.[164] In July 2019 BuzzFeed announced that it would voluntarily recognize an employee union.[165]

Ideology

[edit]

BuzzFeed states in its editorial guide that "we firmly believe that for a number of issues, including civil rights, women's rights, anti-racism, and LGBT equality, there are not two sides."[166] The Week's correspondent Ryan Cooper and American Enterprise Institute's senior fellow Timothy P. Carney at the Washington Examiner raised questions about whether BuzzFeed undermines its credibility by taking sides on political issues.[167][168] In June 2015, BuzzFeed and websites like the Huffington Post and Mashable temporarily changed the theme of their social media avatars to rainbow colors to celebrate same-sex marriage being ruled constitutional in the United States.[169]

In June 2016, the left-leaning media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting found that in 100 BuzzFeed stories about Barack Obama, 65 were positive, 34 were neutral, and one was critical. The report called BuzzFeed's coverage of Obama "creepy" and "almost uniformly uncritical and often sycophantic."[170] BuzzFeed has partnered with Obama on a get-out-the-vote campaign.[171] During the same month, BuzzFeed cancelled an advertising agreement with the Republican National Committee over what BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti called "offensive remarks" made by Donald Trump. Peretti said: "We certainly don't like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company. However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: we don't run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won't accept Trump ads for the exact same reason."[172]

In January 2017, BuzzFeed released what became known as the "Steele dossier", an uncorroborated private intelligence report that alleges several salacious accusations of Trump. Margaret Sullivan at The Washington Post wrote of the release: "It's a bad idea, and always has been, to publish unverified smears."[173] David Graham at The Atlantic called it "an abdication of the basic responsibility of journalism."[174] NBC's Chuck Todd called the release of the document "fake news".[175] Ben Smith defended the decision to release the document from accusations that it was done out of partisanship, arguing that the dossier is of "obvious central public importance."[176]

Awards and recognition

[edit]

In 2017, BuzzFeed won Webby Awards for Best News App and Best Interview/Talk Show (for Another Round),[177] and president Greg Coleman was named Publishing Executive of the Year by Digiday.[178]

In 2018, staff of BuzzFeed news was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in their international reporting category for their article that "proved that operatives with apparent ties to Vladimir Putin have engaged in a targeted killing campaign against his perceived enemies on British and American soil".[179] BuzzFeed later won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021 in the international reporting category for an investigative series about the Xinjiang internment camps.[9]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f "BuzzFeed, Inc. 2023 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. March 29, 2024. Retrieved June 2, 2024.
  2. ^ "About BuzzFeed". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on November 26, 2006. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  3. ^ a b LaFrance, Adrienne; Meyer, Robinson (April 15, 2015). "The Eternal Return of BuzzFeed". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on April 7, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  4. ^ "BuzzFeed gets $50 mn cash infusion, to set up operations in India". The Economic Times. August 12, 2014. Archived from the original on August 16, 2016. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  5. ^ Rishi, Bikramjit; Mehta, Aditya; Banerjee, Poulomi; Deepak, Akshay (November 5, 2018). "Buzzfeed Inc: native advertising the way forward?". Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies. 8 (4): 1–18. doi:10.1108/EEMCS-06-2017-0137. ISSN 2045-0621. Archived from the original on October 31, 2021. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  6. ^ Stelter, Brian (December 12, 2011). "BuzzFeed Adds Politico Writer". Mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com. Archived from the original on December 12, 2011. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
  7. ^ a b c "Digital Digging: How BuzzFeed built an investigative team inside a viral hit factory". Poynter. February 15, 2016. Archived from the original on January 19, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  8. ^ Cochrane, Emily (February 20, 2018). "New York Times Leads Polk Winners With Four Awards". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 17, 2020. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  9. ^ a b Robertson, Katie (June 11, 2021). "Pulitzer Prizes Focus on Coverage of Pandemic and Law Enforcement". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  10. ^ Wang, Shan (July 18, 2018). "The investigations and reporting of BuzzFeed News — *not* BuzzFeed — are now at their own BuzzFeedNews.com". NiemanLab. Archived from the original on November 30, 2018. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  11. ^ Darcy, Oliver (April 20, 2023). "BuzzFeed News will shut down". CNN. Archived from the original on April 20, 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  12. ^ Mitchell, Amy (October 21, 2014). "Appendix C: Trust and Distrust of News Sources by Ideological Group". Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. Archived from the original on December 5, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  13. ^ Blake, Aaron (October 21, 2014). "Ranking the media from liberal to conservative, based on their audiences". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 1, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  14. ^ "Jonah Peretti – eyebeam.org". eyebeam.org. Archived from the original on September 30, 2015.
  15. ^ Chung, Jen (June 4, 2005). "Jonah Peretti, Director of R&D at Eyebeam". Gothamist. Archived from the original on September 29, 2015.
  16. ^ "Our Mental Space, Under Attack". NPR.org. January 1, 2018. Archived from the original on January 30, 2018. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  17. ^ Rice, Andrew (April 7, 2013). "Does BuzzFeed Know the Secret?". New York. Archived from the original on April 28, 2017. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
  18. ^ a b c Shontell, Alyson (December 11, 2012). "Inside BuzzFeed: The Story of How Jonah Peretti Built the Web's Most Beloved New Media Brand". Business Insider. Archived from the original on October 29, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  19. ^ Estes, Adam Clark. "The Mystery Team That Recruited Ben Smith to BuzzFeed". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on January 25, 2018. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  20. ^ Fox, Emily Jane (August 23, 2016). "Exclusive: BuzzFeed Is Dividing in Company-Wide Reorganization". The Hive. Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on July 13, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
  21. ^ Mullin, Benjamin (August 23, 2016). "BuzzFeed undergoes company-wide reorganization, separating entertainment from news". Poynter. Archived from the original on January 8, 2018. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
  22. ^ Robischon, Noah (February 22, 2016). "BuzzFeed's Quest For Impact In The Viral News Era". Fast Company. Archived from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  23. ^ "BuzzFeed's International Editions". BuzzFeed. September 23, 2016. Archived from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  24. ^ "BuzzFeed is laying off 100 workers, 8% of its U.S. employees, after missing revenue target". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. September 21, 2020. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
  25. ^ Pallotta, Frank (November 29, 2017). "BuzzFeed to cut staff as it reorganizes its business side". CNNMoney. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  26. ^ Bond, Shannon (December 7, 2017). "BuzzFeed to cut nearly a third of its UK staff in reorganisation". Financial Times. Archived from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  27. ^ Piquard, Alexandre (June 7, 2018). "" BuzzFeed " veut licencier 100 % de son équipe en France et y cesser son activité". Le Monde (in French). Archived from the original on February 12, 2019. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
  28. ^ Lee, Edmund (January 23, 2019). "BuzzFeed Plans Layoffs as It Aims to Turn Profit". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 24, 2019. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  29. ^ Petski, Denise (August 25, 2020). "Buzzfeed Inks First-Look Deal With Universal TV; Sets First Project With Jenna Bans & Erika Green". Deadline. Archived from the original on August 25, 2020. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  30. ^ "BuzzFeed News Editor in Chief Resigns Amid Company-Wide Job Cuts". Vanity Fair. March 22, 2022. Archived from the original on March 27, 2022. Retrieved April 11, 2022.
  31. ^ Sherman, Alex (March 22, 2022). "BuzzFeed investors have pushed CEO Jonah Peretti to shut down entire newsroom, sources say". CNBC. Archived from the original on April 11, 2022. Retrieved April 11, 2022.
  32. ^ a b "Ad Age Digital A-List: Buzzfeed". adage.com. February 27, 2012. Archived from the original on September 29, 2019. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
  33. ^ "Viral Aggregator BuzzFeed Raises $15.5M To Transform The Way People Get Their News". TechCrunch. January 9, 2012. Archived from the original on April 23, 2023. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
  34. ^ "BuzzFeed adapts its branded content approach to political advertising, and Obama's in". Nieman Lab. Archived from the original on September 29, 2019. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
  35. ^ Warzel, Charlie (January 3, 2013). "BuzzFeed Lands $19.3 Million Funding Round". www.adweek.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2019. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
  36. ^ Meyer, Adrienne LaFrance and Robinson (April 15, 2015). "The Eternal Return of BuzzFeed". The Atlantic. ISSN 1072-7825. Archived from the original on April 7, 2020. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
  37. ^ Weprin, Alex (November 25, 2014). "Buzzfeed passes $100 M. in revenue for 2014". Politico. Archived from the original on April 23, 2023. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
  38. ^ a b c "NBCUniversal doubles stake in BuzzFeed with $200 million investment". Reuters. November 21, 2016. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  39. ^ a b "BuzzFeed raises another $50 million to fund expansion". CNN. August 10, 2014. Archived from the original on August 15, 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  40. ^ Mandaro, Laura. "BuzzFeed receives $50 million from Andreessen Horowitz". USA TODAY. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
  41. ^ a b "How BuzzFeed's Jonah Peretti Is Building A 100-Year Media Company". Fast Company. February 16, 2016. Archived from the original on May 18, 2016. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  42. ^ Griffith, Erin. "Vox Media becomes a startup "unicorn" with NBCU funding". Fortune. Archived from the original on December 17, 2015. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  43. ^ Lien, Tracey (August 18, 2015). "NBCUniversal makes $200-million investment in Buzzfeed". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 18, 2015. Retrieved August 18, 2015.
  44. ^ "BuzzFeed gets fed". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on October 14, 2015. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
  45. ^ "Here's why Comcast/NBC is investing Vox and BuzzFeed". Fortune. Archived from the original on March 24, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  46. ^ "BuzzFeed expands foreign staff". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  47. ^ Ingram, Mathew (October 21, 2016). "NBCUniversal Continues Its Creeping Takeover of BuzzFeed". Fortune. Archived from the original on March 24, 2019. Retrieved March 24, 2019.
  48. ^ a b "Facebook funding 2 new BuzzFeed News shows for its Watch platform". Axios. August 13, 2019. Archived from the original on September 29, 2019. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
  49. ^ Tani, Maxwell (March 25, 2020). "BuzzFeed Slashing Employee Pay Amid the Coronavirus Crisis". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on March 25, 2020. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  50. ^ Perper, Rosie. "BuzzFeed shuts down local news operations in UK and Australia to focus on 'news that hits big' in the US". Business Insider. Archived from the original on July 24, 2020. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  51. ^ Barthel, Michael; Stocking, Galen (July 14, 2020). "Key facts about digital-native news outlets amid staff cuts, revenue losses". Archived from the original on July 24, 2020. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  52. ^ Spangler, Todd (June 24, 2021). "BuzzFeed Valued at $1.5 Billion in SPAC Deal to Go Public, Will Acquire Complex Networks for $300 Million". Variety. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
  53. ^ Eavis, Peter; Robertson, Katie; Hirsch, Lauren (December 6, 2021). "BuzzFeed's stock falls in its public debut, offering a warning to other digital media firms". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
  54. ^ Lee, Edmund (June 24, 2021). "BuzzFeed Confirms Plan to Go Public". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
  55. ^ "BuzzFeed - Raised $497M Funding from 21 investors - Tracxn". tracxn.com. March 17, 2024. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
  56. ^ Constine, Josh September 13, 2012 TechCrunch. "BuzzFeed's First Acquisition Kingfish Labs Could Make Its FB Ads Go More Viral Than Football Cats Archived July 7, 2017, at the Wayback Machine"
  57. ^ Ha, Anthony October 28, 2014 Techcrunch. "BuzzFeed Acquires Startup Torando Labs To Create Its First Data Engineering Team Archived July 7, 2017, at the Wayback Machine"
  58. ^ Hagey, Benjamin Mullin and Keach (November 19, 2020). "BuzzFeed to Acquire HuffPost in Stock Deal With Verizon Media". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on November 19, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  59. ^ Kerry Flynn (November 19, 2020). "BuzzFeed chief Jonah Perreti brings HuffPost back under his fold in deal with Verizon Media". CNN. Archived from the original on November 19, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
  60. ^ "BuzzFeed acquires HuffPost as digital media companies join forces". NBC News. November 19, 2020. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  61. ^ Werpin, Alex (June 24, 2021). "BuzzFeed Going Public, Valued At $1.5B In SPAC Merger". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  62. ^ Chan, J. Clara (June 2, 2023). "BuzzFeed Receives Nasdaq Delisting Notice After Poor Stock Performance". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  63. ^ Stenberg, Mark (November 30, 2023). "BuzzFeed Inc. Granted Extension on Nasdaq Delisting". www.adweek.com. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
  64. ^ Dugan, Kevin T. (January 9, 2024). "BuzzFeed's 'Dire' Debt Problem". Intelligencer. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
  65. ^ "BuzzFeed, Inc. Announces 1-For-4 Reverse Stock Split". Yahoo Finance. May 2, 2024. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
  66. ^ "Britain's The Independent in talks to take control of BuzzFeed UK - source". REUTERS.
  67. ^ Fischer, Sara (February 2, 2024). "BuzzFeed sells Complex for $108 million, announces job cuts". Axios. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  68. ^ Toonkel, Alexandra Bruell and Jessica. "WSJ News Exclusive | Vice's Refinery29 and BuzzFeed's Tasty Are Up for Sale as Digital Media Contracts". WSJ. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  69. ^ Weprin, Alex (February 21, 2024). "BuzzFeed to Lay Off 16 Percent of Its Workforce In Major Cuts". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  70. ^ Maas, Jennifer (February 21, 2024). "Process of Elimination: Why Layoffs Are Hitting Media, Tech and Gaming – Despite Their Steep Costs". Variety. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  71. ^ Stenberg, Mark (July 23, 2024). "Publisher Lost In Acquires BuzzFeed's Bring Me! Franchise". Adweek. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  72. ^ Rainey, Clint (May 23, 2024). "Vivek Ramaswamy spent $3.3 million to buy 8% of BuzzFeed. How much damage could he do with that stake?". Fast Company. Retrieved September 13, 2024.
  73. ^ a b Williams, Mark. "Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy buys big into BuzzFeed, quickly demands change". USA TODAY. Retrieved May 29, 2024.
  74. ^ "Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy takes a 7.7% stake in BuzzFeed". AP News. May 22, 2024. Retrieved May 29, 2024.
  75. ^ Flynn, Kerry (May 28, 2024). "Vivek Ramaswamy calls for job cuts at BuzzFeed". Axios. Retrieved September 13, 2024.
  76. ^ Lopatto, Elizabeth (May 28, 2024). "Vivek Ramaswamy can't even dunk on Buzzfeed right". The Verge. Retrieved May 29, 2024.
  77. ^ Oremus, Will (June 19, 2014). "Area Humor Site Discovers Clickbait". Slate. Archived from the original on June 19, 2014. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
  78. ^ a b c "50 Million New Reasons BuzzFeed Wants to Take Its Content Far Beyond Lists". The New York Times. August 11, 2014. Archived from the original on May 18, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  79. ^ Lepore, Jill. "The Cobweb. Can the Internet be archived?". The New Yorker (January 26, 2015 issue). Archived from the original on January 25, 2015. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  80. ^ * Corcoran, Liam. "BuzzFeed Back On Top – The Biggest Facebook Publishers of December 2013". blog.newswhip.com. NewsWhip. Archived from the original on October 23, 2014. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
  81. ^ Mullin, Benjamin (April 10, 2017). "BuzzFeed News gets its first Pulitzer citation". Poynter. Archived from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  82. ^ Darcy, Oliver (April 20, 2023). "BuzzFeed News shuts down". CNN. Archived from the original on April 20, 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  83. ^ Malone, Clare (May 4, 2023). "Jonah Peretti Has Regrets About BuzzFeed News". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
  84. ^ BuzzFeedVideo's channel on YouTube
  85. ^ "About". BuzzFeed Video on YouTube. Google Inc. October 24, 2014. Archived from the original on October 8, 2019. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  86. ^ Longwell, Todd (September 8, 2016). "With 2 scripted YouTube series, BuzzFeed looks to move beyond viral videos". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on September 9, 2016. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  87. ^ Mullin, Benjamin (September 19, 2018). "BuzzFeed News Cuts Podcasting Team to Focus on Video". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on February 6, 2019. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
  88. ^ a b Uberti, David. "BuzzFeed and the digital media meltdown". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
  89. ^ Spangler, Todd (September 20, 2018). "BuzzFeed Shuts Down In-House Podcast Team". Variety. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
  90. ^ "McSweeney's Internet Tendency: List: Suggested BuzzFeed Articles". McSweeney's Internet Tendency. Archived from the original on May 12, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  91. ^ a b c "Suggested BuzzFeed Articles". BuzzFeed. July 18, 2012. Archived from the original on August 3, 2017. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  92. ^ a b c Carlson, Reb (August 6, 2012). "How to Respond When Your Content Strategy Comes Under Fire". contently.com. Archived from the original on December 27, 2014. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  93. ^ a b Foster Kamer (July 18, 2012). "In Which Buzzfeed Answers a McSweeney's Parody of Their Site with Aplomb". The New York Observer. Archived from the original on May 10, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  94. ^ "BuzzFeed – Yesterday, McSweeney's published a list of..." facebook.com. Archived from the original on February 17, 2016. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  95. ^ a b "Buzzfeed's capable response to McSweeney's parody". UPI. Archived from the original on December 20, 2014. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  96. ^ * "McSweeney's challenges BuzzFeed to listicle-off, loses". The Daily Dot. July 20, 2012. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  97. ^ Jeff John Roberts (May 8, 2013). "Get your cat on: BuzzFeed creates new section where readers can publish". Gigaom. Gigaom, Inc. Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  98. ^ "About BuzzFeed Community". BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed, Inc. October 24, 2014. Archived from the original on October 23, 2014. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  99. ^ "How Community-Created Content Generates 100M Page Views: A BuzzFeed Community Case Study". CMX. May 16, 2017. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
  100. ^ "Mayor Bill de Blasio weighs in on BuzzFeed union dispute". TechCrunch. April 4, 2019. Archived from the original on April 23, 2023. Retrieved April 5, 2019.
  101. ^ Watts, Duncan, and Jonah Peretti, "Viral Marketing for the Real World" Archived June 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Harvard Business Review, May 2007.
  102. ^ Ting, Deanna (December 10, 2019). "With Tasty, BuzzFeed has a multi-revenue stream model". Digiday. Archived from the original on December 27, 2019. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
  103. ^ Griffith, Erin (January 19, 2016). "BuzzFeed's Foodie Channels Are Blowing Up on Facebook". Fortune. Archived from the original on June 5, 2016. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  104. ^ Tasty Junior Facebook page Archived May 20, 2017, at the Wayback Machine – (accessed February 15, 2017)
  105. ^ "Tasty Shop". Tasty Shop. Archived from the original on December 2, 2016. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  106. ^ "How food brand Tasty is a template for BuzzFeed's vertical expansion". Digiday. May 22, 2017. Archived from the original on December 27, 2019. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
  107. ^ "BuzzFeed has a new business model, so it's selling its own line of kitchen tools at Walmart". Recode. Archived from the original on March 1, 2018. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  108. ^ "Tasty One Top". Tasty Shop. Archived from the original on April 18, 2018. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  109. ^ "Cooking Kit". Tasty Shop. Archived from the original on April 18, 2018. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  110. ^ Main, Sami (June 1, 2017). "These BuzzFeed Videos Are Unexpectedly Impacting Local Businesses Around the World". Adweek. Archived from the original on October 22, 2017. Retrieved October 19, 2017.
  111. ^ Spangler, Todd (December 9, 2019). "Ex-BuzzFeed Video Staffers Launch Watcher Entertainment Digital Studio (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
  112. ^ Weiss, Geoff (December 9, 2019). "Three Of BuzzFeed's Biggest Video Stars Launch Indie Studio 'Watcher Entertainment'". Tubefilter. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
  113. ^ "BuzzFeed's 'The Try Guys' Talk About Their NewFronts And Advertising Experiences". Tubefilter. May 17, 2016. Archived from the original on May 3, 2018. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
  114. ^ "The Try Guys, Quinta Brunston, Ashly Perez Lead BuzzFeed's Original Programming Slate – Tubefilter". Tubefilter. May 2, 2016. Archived from the original on May 2, 2018. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
  115. ^ "Night In/Night Out". www.facebook.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2022. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  116. ^ James, Geoffrey (July 12, 2021). "TikTok and Buzzfeed Are Disrupting a $250 Billion Industry". Inc. Archived from the original on December 9, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  117. ^ "Creators On The Rise: The animators behind The Land of Boggs gave up trying to make it on YouTube. Then their channel got 300 million views". Tubefilter. May 11, 2022. Archived from the original on December 9, 2022. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
  118. ^ a b Warzel, Charlie (February 26, 2015). "2/26: The Oral History". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on March 19, 2018. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
  119. ^ "The Dress". BuzzFeed. February 27, 2014. Archived from the original on June 3, 2016. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
  120. ^ "#TheDress couple: 'we were completely left out from the story'". BBC News. January 1, 2016. Archived from the original on January 6, 2016. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
  121. ^ Hathaway, Jay (April 8, 2016). Welp, the future of Facebook is exploding watermelons Archived June 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, The Daily Dot
  122. ^ Adrian Chen. "Remix Everything: BuzzFeed and the Plagiarism Problem". Gawker. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on September 12, 2013.
  123. ^ Philip Bump. "BuzzFeed's 'Happiest Facts of All Time' Were Mostly Plagiarized from Reddit". The Wire. Archived from the original on October 14, 2013. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
  124. ^ "BuzzFeed's Benny Johnson accused of plagiarism". Politico. July 25, 2014. Archived from the original on July 24, 2014. Retrieved July 25, 2014.
  125. ^ "3 Reasons Benny Johnson Shouldn't Call Out Plagiarism: He's A Plagiarist, He's A Plagiarist, And He's A Plagiarist". Our Bad Media. July 24, 2014. Archived from the original on July 24, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
  126. ^ a b Farhi, Paul (July 26, 2014). "Buzzfeed fires Benny Johnson for plagiarism". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 26, 2014. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  127. ^ Stelter, Brian (July 26, 2014). "BuzzFeed fires viral politics editor for plagiarizing". CNN Money. Archived from the original on July 30, 2014. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  128. ^ Garcia, Feliks (July 1, 2016). "Buzzfeed accused of 'stealing ideas' by YouTube personality". The Independent. Archived from the original on August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  129. ^ Roberts, Jeff (June 18, 2013). "Photographer sues BuzzFeed for $3.6M over viral sharing model". paidcontent.org. Archived from the original on March 9, 2014. Retrieved March 9, 2014.
  130. ^ "BuzzFeed Sued for $1.3M After Publishing 9 Celebrity Photos Without Permission". PetaPixel. October 17, 2012. Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  131. ^ "BuzzFeed News Fires Senior Reporter for Plagiarism". TheWrap (in Latin). June 27, 2020. Archived from the original on June 28, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
  132. ^ "Political Polarization & Media Habits". journalism.org. Pew Research Center. October 21, 2014. Archived from the original on October 21, 2014. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
  133. ^ Zhang, Mona (October 21, 2014). "Can BuzzFeed Be Trusted?". Adweek. Archived from the original on May 7, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
  134. ^ Engel, Pamela (March 27, 2017). "These are the most and least trusted news outlets in America". Business Insider. Archived from the original on September 30, 2019. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
  135. ^ Coffee, Patrick (October 21, 2014). "Is BuzzFeed Really America's 'Least Trusted' News Source?". Adweek. Archived from the original on February 9, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
  136. ^ "Millennials and Political News". Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. June 1, 2015. Archived from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
  137. ^ Ingram, Mathew (June 5, 2015). "Does BuzzFeed Have a Trust Problem?". Fortune. Archived from the original on January 8, 2018. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
  138. ^ Ristau, Reece (June 1, 2015). "Study: Rush Limbaugh, Buzzfeed Among Least Trusted News Sources". Variety. Archived from the original on March 19, 2018. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
  139. ^ Funt, Danny; Gourarie, Chava; Murtha, Jack (June 27, 2016). "The New Yorker, BuzzFeed, and the push for digital credibility". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on January 8, 2018. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
  140. ^ Ruddick, Graham (August 9, 2017). "Four UK news sources among top 10 most trusted in US – survey". The Guardian. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  141. ^ Harkiolakis, Tatiana (2020). "BuzzFeed publishing the unverified Steele dossier: a brief case study". International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies. 11 (1): 65. doi:10.1504/IJTCS.2020.108168.
  142. ^ a b Byers, Dylan (January 10, 2017). "BuzzFeed's publication of Trump memos draws controversy". CNNMoney. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
  143. ^ Sanchez, Chris. "BuzzFeed published 35 pages of damaging, unverified claims against Trump". Business Insider. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
  144. ^ Sutton, Kelsey (January 11, 2017). "Trump calls CNN 'fake news,' as channel defends its reporting on intelligence briefing". Politico. Archived from the original on April 23, 2023. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
  145. ^ Jamieson, Amber (January 11, 2017). "'You are fake news': Trump attacks CNN and BuzzFeed at press conference". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 2, 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2020 – via www.theguardian.com.
  146. ^ Cohen, Marshall (February 28, 2019). "Michael Cohen denies under oath visiting Prague in 2016 to collude with Russians". CNN. Archived from the original on February 28, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
  147. ^ Polantz, Katelyn; Kelly, Caroline (January 19, 2019). "Mueller's Office Disputes Buzzfeed Report That Trump Directed Michael Cohen to Lie to Congress". CNN. Archived from the original on January 19, 2019. Retrieved January 19, 2019. BuzzFeed said in its own statement, '... We remain confident in the accuracy of our report.' ... The BuzzFeed reporters were unclear Friday in television interviews about whether they had seen the documents described in their story.
  148. ^ "Fluxblog » Blog Archive » How Laid Off Are You?". Fluxblog. January 28, 2019. Archived from the original on January 31, 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  149. ^ "It's Not the Stuff of a Playful BuzzFeed Quiz". The New York Times. January 31, 2019. Archived from the original on February 1, 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  150. ^ Rose, Hilary. "The teenager whose quizzes made £3 million (for Buzzfeed, not for her)". Archived from the original on August 1, 2020. Retrieved February 11, 2020 – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  151. ^ "Michigan teen who made 700 BuzzFeed quizzes for free will stop after staff layoffs". Detroit Free Press. January 31, 2019. Archived from the original on February 1, 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  152. ^ Zhang, Jenny G (January 29, 2019). "BuzzFeed's Unpaid 19-Year-Old Quiz Genius on Her Tricks, the Layoffs, and Jonah Peretti". Slate. Archived from the original on January 31, 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  153. ^ Trotter, JK (April 9, 2015). "BuzzFeed Deletes Post Critical of Dove, a BuzzFeed Advertiser". Gawker. Archived from the original on April 13, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  154. ^ Somaiya, Ravi (April 10, 2015). "BuzzFeed Restores 2 Posts Its Editor Deleted". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 22, 2015. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
  155. ^ "BuzzFeed Editor-In-Chief Ben Smith Says He "Blew It" By Removing Post Criticizing Dove". TechCrunch. April 10, 2015. Archived from the original on April 13, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  156. ^ Trotter, JK (April 13, 2015). "Arabelle Sicardi, Author of Deleted Dove Post, Resigns From BuzzFeed". Gawker. Archived from the original on April 14, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  157. ^ Stack, Liam (April 19, 2015). "BuzzFeed Says Posts Were Deleted Because of Advertising Pressure". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 29, 2021. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
  158. ^ Cookson, Robert (January 13, 2016). "Watchdog criticises BuzzFeed for misleading readers". Financial Times. Archived from the original on January 31, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  159. ^ a b Sweney, Mark (January 13, 2016). "BuzzFeed breaks UK ad rules over misleading advertorial". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 1, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  160. ^ "ASA Ruling on Henkel Ltd". ASA.org.uk. Advertising Standards Agency. Archived from the original on February 5, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  161. ^ June, Laura (February 26, 2016). "Talking About Diversity Earns Men Praise, Women Rape Threats". New York Magazine. Archived from the original on March 31, 2016. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  162. ^ Chin, Jessica (February 21, 2016). "Scaachi Koul, BuzzFeed Writer, Harassed After Call For 'Not White And Not Male' Contributors". HuffPost Canada. Archived from the original on April 4, 2016. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  163. ^ Subramanian, Sarmishta (February 29, 2016). "What's missing in the outrage about media diversity". Maclean's. Archived from the original on March 27, 2016. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  164. ^ Peiser, Jaclyn (January 25, 2019). "BuzzFeed's First Round of Layoffs Puts an End to Its National News Desk". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
  165. ^ Subramanian, Sarmishta (July 22, 2019). "BuzzFeed voluntarily recognizes union". Maclean's. Archived from the original on July 22, 2019. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  166. ^ "The BuzzFeed News Standards And Ethics Guide". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on January 8, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  167. ^ Cooper, Ryan (July 28, 2015). "Why BuzzFeed's ethics guide is an incoherent mess". The Week. Archived from the original on November 7, 2018. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  168. ^ Carney, Timothy P. (June 29, 2015). "BuzzFeed shows how silly pretenses of neutrality leads to intolerant contortions". Washington Examiner. Archived from the original on April 17, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  169. ^ Byers, Dylan (June 26, 2015). "Should news outlets declare allegiances?". Politico. Archived from the original on May 18, 2020. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  170. ^ "BuzzFeed's Obama Coverage Is 99 Percent Uncritical–and Borderline Creepy". Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. June 30, 2016. Archived from the original on November 7, 2018. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  171. ^ "With help from President Obama, BuzzFeed launches get-out-the-vote initiative". Politico. Archived from the original on November 7, 2018. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  172. ^ "BuzzFeed says Trump is 'hazardous to our health,' bails on RNC ad buy". The Sacramento Bee. June 6, 2016. ISSN 0890-5738. Archived from the original on October 11, 2018. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  173. ^ Borchers, Callum (January 12, 2017). "Why so many journalists are mad at BuzzFeed". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 7, 2018. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  174. ^ Graham, David A. (January 11, 2017). "The Trouble With Publishing the Trump Dossier". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  175. ^ Abadi, Mark. "Chuck Todd hammers BuzzFeed editor over explosive Trump report: 'You just published fake news'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  176. ^ Greenwood, Max (January 10, 2018). "BuzzFeed editor defends publication of dossier". The Hill. Archived from the original on February 16, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  177. ^ Ifeanyi, K. C. (April 25, 2017). "Here Are The Winners Of The 21st Annual Webby Awards". Fast Company. Archived from the original on April 28, 2017. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  178. ^ "BuzzFeed's Greg Coleman is Publishing Executive of the Year at the Digiday Publishing Awards". Digiday. March 23, 2017. Archived from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  179. ^ "Finalist: Staff of BuzzFeed News". www.pulitzer.org. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved March 30, 2019.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Küng, Lucy (2015). "BuzzFeed – Making Life More Interesting for the Hundreds of Millions Bored at Work". Innovators in Digital News. I. B. Tauris & Co. pp. 55–74. ISBN 978-1784534165.
[edit]
  • Official website
  • Business data for BuzzFeed, Inc.: