BuzzFeed changed the game — and still lost
BuzzFeed News began life back in 2011, five years after its parent site, BuzzFeed, was launched. BuzzFeed made its name via what detractors would call clickbait, but investors would call highly shareable, consumer focused content delivery. In the early days, the meme was that BuzzFeed was a business model based off cat videos and listicles — but, back in 2006, that was basically all you needed. When BuzzFeed News was launched, it was clear that the site was attempting a move into the arena of credible news organisations. You need only compare the logos of the two organisations: BuzzFeed is rendered in an irritating sans serif red font, while BuzzFeed News is spelt out in a black, serif typeface that would be more at home in the New York Times. They hired Ben Smith from Politico as editor-in-chief (Smith later moved to the Times and then on to co-found Semafor) and Mark Schoofs, from ProPublica, joined as head of investigations. Janine Gibson — instrumental in the Pulitzer winning reporting on the Snowden leaks — headed up the London office, joining from the Guardian. It was an expensive, credible project — a far cry from cat videos.
And the output was often first class. Readers of this newsletter will likely remember big breaking stories like the Steele dossier (an allegation of misconduct towards the Trump campaign) and the FinCEN Files (a leak of financial crimes reports). Big scoops were matched by equally forensic reporting: during its just over a decade of existence, BuzzFeed News won the George Polk Award, the National Magazine Award, the National Press Foundation award, The Sidney Award (whatever that is) and a Pulitzer. As an experiment in building a newsroom, it worked.
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