Once a digital media darling, BuzzFeed has had a rough start to life as a public company since its merger with a blank-check company at the end of last year, with its shares down more than 40%.
News vs. listicles
As we wrote about last year, BuzzFeed isn't just about the outrageous clickbait or listicles these days. They've also invested millions into BuzzFeed News — by far its most serious journalistic effort — and it has seen some impressive results, including winning a coveted Pulitzer prize.
Unfortunately, BuzzFeed News burns about $10 million a year, which has led to some investors, who understandably care more about the "bottom line", to call for the entire division to be shut down. So far CEO Jonah Peretti has refused to go quite that far, but the company did announce a shrinking of the division on Tuesday, including a departure of the editor-in-chief. Serious journalism might be more "worthy", but it's not an easy business to make money in (hey you should sponsor this newsletter).
