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https://theconversation.com/buzzfeed-news-sad-demise-of-a-clever-innovative-site-that-led-the-way-in-digital-journalism-201801>
"
Buzzfeed News, once a shining star of digital journalism, has announced it
will shut its award-winning news division for good, laying off about 60
journalists in a move its founding editor, Ben Smith, described as “the end of
the marriage between social media and news”.
Buzzfeed – for a few years regarded as a top exponent of viral news – has
been struggling to maintain its buzz of late. The cheeky and provocative – if
at times annoying – provider of endless listicles and outrageous clickbait
headlines is reported to have fallen into financial difficulties.
The site’s founder, Jonah Peretti, is reported to have told staff: “I made the
decision to over-invest in
BuzzFeed News because I love their work and
mission so much. This made me slow to accept that the big platforms wouldn’t
provide the distribution or financial support required to support premium, free
journalism purpose-built for social media.”
A decline in traffic to the site seems to have been caused by a drop in
referrals from feeder sites such as Facebook. This was itself caused by a
switch to its users watching and sharing more video on sites like TikTok. Less
traffic means less ad revenue. And less revenue has meant the closure of
Buzzfeed’s news operation – itself a loss leader to give the site extra
credibility – and a resultant loss of jobs for its journalists.
It’s bad news for those involved – and a tragedy for the wider digital news
media.
Buzzfeed News produced lots of hard-edged, scoop-heavy journalism –
and it will be missed. Let’s be clear: it is the valuable news division – the
one that revealed the network of detention camps in Xinjiang Province in China
– that is to shut. The other stuff, the user-generated free-for-all, full of
videos of baby penguins being tickled and listicles setting out the best method
to air-fry chips will remain – at least for now.
Buzzfeed News produced intelligent, hard-hitting journalism that frequently
scooped established media organisations. It won respect and awards in equal
measure."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
