Can the BuzzFeed Formula Work For Real News?

BuzzFeed, the meme-centric social news site known for its reserves of offbeat content and silly cat photos, is stockpiling journalists—serious ones. Last week, it announced the hire of award-winning Rolling Stone writer Michael Hastings, adding to an impressive roster of reporters that include Gizmodo’s Matt Buchanan, RollingStone.com’s Doree Shafrir, New York magazine’s Amy Odell and, most notably, Politico powerhouse Ben Smith. The recent spate of big hires has even sparked its own Tumblr. It’s all part of an original content effort that CEO and co-founder Jonah Peretti said is intended to make BuzzFeed the leading social publisher. “We’ve been hiring a new breed of reporter who combines traditional journalistic values with fluency for the social web,” he said. “People can share and discover content on [social networks] and email. The big opportunity now is making content worth sharing.” Surely, every reporter believes their content is worth sharing. But as this new class of journalist attempts to remake BuzzFeed into a purveyor of consequential stories —not just catchy ones—what’s to say that its scoops on politics and culture won’t get lost amid the flood of posts labeled “lol,” “cute” and “omg”? In a world where people already get news from Facebook News Feeds and Twitter streams, that’s not a big issue, said Peretti. “Consumers are used to seeing personal updates, mixed with cute cat pictures, mixed with election coverage,” he said. “Everything is combined... Continue reading at 'AdWeek'

[ AdWeek | 2012-03-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rupert Murdoch is 'not fit' to run News Corporation, claim MPs

Rupert Murdoch is "not fit" to have "stewardship of a major international company", while his son James showed "wilful ignorance" over phone hacking, according to a Select Committee report published today. Continue reading at Media Week

[ Media Week | 2012-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google News Headline Error Creates Controversy For ABC Anchor

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[ AdWeek | 2012-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Edward Humes' work is rubbish

The author of 'Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash' discusses how he became fascinated with garbage.Edward Humes is a man of eclectic storytelling tastes. A former journalist awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for a series of stories he wrote for the Orange County Register on the military... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Real Bad Guy in the E-Book Price Fixing Case

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[ Slate | 2012-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Figment lets young writers share and critique work

Figment is a website that gives teenagers and young adults a forum for posting their work and giving advice to others. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Real-life Downton' memoir to MJ

Diane Banks at Diane Banks Associates has sold the memoirs of a 95-year-old former domestic... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Big Newspaper Publishers Cut Work Force 7% in 2011

While 2011 saw fewer announcements of layoffs and buyouts in the newspaper industry than previous years, attrition continued quietly and relentlessly, with the nation’s biggest newspaper publishers trimming their combined work forces by 7.2 ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-04-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Frederick News-Post Resumes Monday Print Edition

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[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kurt Vonnegut: unpublished work released through Kindle

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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Works revamps book range

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google gives us some insight on the inner workings of Google Translate

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[ Engadget | 2012-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New Media and Tech Winning the Viral News War

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[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Search Engines And Online News Aggregators Could Have To Pay To Use Snippets From Newspapers In Germany

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[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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French government to digitize out-of-print 20th century works, plans ebook initiative

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[ Engadget | 2012-03-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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James Murdoch Leaves News Corp. Publishing Unit

More fallout from PhoneGate: News Corp. executive James Murdoch has "relinquished his position" as executive chairman head of News International, the conglomerate's British newspaper unit. News Corp., which also owns this Web site, says News International chief executive Tom Mockridge will stay... Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2012-02-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Church wins $1.1m payout from News Corp

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[ Stuff | 2012-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Retailers welcome "huge news", novel due later this year says Rowling

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Retailers welcome "huge news" of Rowling novel

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Real-Time Advertising Bidding Offers Publisher Control

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[ Folio Magazine | 2012-02-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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News Sites on the Mobile Web: Vast Room for Improvement

Many news publishers focus their mobile strategies on platform-specific apps—but the mobile web may actually be more important, since a mobile website is easier to discover, link to, and share from a mobile device. Damon Kiesow, senior prod ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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