5 replies to this topic

[ccabal86]

https://www.thecut.com/2019/02/vice-layoffs-buzzfeed-huffpost-media.html

https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/buzzfeed-verizon-layoffs.php

 

Buzzfeed is also accused of racism/homophobia by former employees : https://nextshark.com/buzzfeed-layoff-poc-lgbtq/

 

Spoiler

 

So maybe the learning here is that a business model built on clickbait, racebait, genderbait and general regressive leftist propaganda doesn't sell as well as some have hoped. Also, don't anchor yourself to Facebook algorithms, it will bite you in the ass.

 

Let's hope that this is one more nail in the coffin for advertisement/click based business models, because frankly, all that does is generate toxicity. We need to just suck it up and pay for the content we want to support with donations/subscriptions. That ensures that journalists and creators can actually focus on their actual jobs instead of generating digital crap.

[Fermion]

IIRC Buzzfeed used the clickbait to drive revenue for their investigative journalism, and the more serious teams. I haven't read many pieces myself, but I heard they were well respected. In the second article it said that their national news desk and national security coverage. They seem like important areas to cover. Digital age has been brutal to print media. I get almost all my "news" from Reddit, but that itself links to articles written by them. 15% cuts are substantial. It does seem like subscription is the way moving forward. 

[ccabal86]

I haven't read many pieces myself, but I heard they were well respected.

 

A few good pieces and lots of unabashedly biased ones was my impression, and I actually read quite a few.  As they say: Bad faith changes everything...

[Lysistrata]

Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of fake news composers. They have to loudly blame something trendy for their firing, or too much attention will be spent actually fact checking their work. The world is a slightly better place today.

[Colonel Medved]

I never took BuzzFeed as a legitimate news source. But i did enjoy some of their youtube videos, that had nothing to do with news lol

[onbekende]

I heared they are mostly "freelancing" their entire click-bait side of the business cause they found that teenagers made better "these are 5 things ..." stuff then their own staff. >_>