Case Study: Buzzfeed
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Case study: BuzzFeed Enders Analysis 46A Great Marlborough Street, London W1F 7JW +44 207 851 0900 Overview [email protected] BuzzFeed describes itself as “the social news and entertainment company”, and August 2014 delivers an original mix of light-hearted and more serious news, entertainment, games, quizzes and lists all packaged in a quickly digestible and very visual format. Example headlines range from “27 Super-Cool Ways To Eat Cucumbers” and “The Secret History of “Flashdance”” to “Attorney General Orders Federal Autopsy On Michael Brown”1. Originally founded in 2006 as an experiment at a creative arts lab in New York, BuzzFeed has become a publishing and social sharing phenomenon, reaching a global audience of more than 150 million people, particularly appealing to younger audiences less likely to access traditional news media. BuzzFeed US website homepage, 17 August 2014 [Source: BuzzFeed] Background and context BuzzFeed is based on a simple but powerful idea: that people like to share stories and ideas with friends and contacts. Since the mid-1990s, there have been three phases in how online news and information is distributed. Initially, online portals, such as AOL, MSN and Yahoo!, were the gatekeepers. This was followed by the emergence of search, led by Google, as the key channel for content discovery. The third wave has been the rise of social media, exemplified by Facebook. Over a similar timeframe, there has been a shift in the devices used to access the internet, from desktop PC to laptop to smartphone and tablet. Internet 1 The US teenager shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014. consumption with mobile devices now surpasses that to the PC, according to our estimates, as it does already in the US2. This shift is being driven by our increasing love affair with mobile devices and explosive growth in take-up and usage of apps. Producing and optimising content to be shared via social media and consumed on mobile phones has enabled BuzzFeed to become one of the world’s largest online news and entertainment properties. Content strategy Unlike traditional news organisations, wherein the main editors and journalists still decide what subjects to cover, the majority of BuzzFeed’s content is based on a sophisticated feedback loop, which starts with the concept of ‘viral’ content. Content becomes viral roughly when it is shared through social networks or email to the extent that it gains its own momentum and accrues huge volumes of views in a short period without additional marketing. Traditionally, these were short, humorous videos or animations, but any shareable content can “go viral”. Social media analytics are used to identify subjects and stories that are going viral on the internet. The editorial team then produces and publishes articles around these topics, some serious, many irreverent. In addition, users can post directly to BuzzFeed via its Community section. Popular articles are promoted more heavily on BuzzFeed’s website and mobile apps in order to maximise audience reach and social media sharing. All the data and learning is fed back into the loop. BuzzFeed content feedback loop [Source: Enders Analysis] Most of BuzzFeed’s content is made up of frequently changed bite-sized articles, heavy on images and photos with relatively little text. This makes them quick to digest, especially over smartphones, which are increasingly a primary channel for BuzzFeed’s target audience, and ideal for sharing. This taps into what CEO Jonah Peretti calls the “bored at work” and “bored in line” networks, meaning people seeking a few minutes’ or even a few seconds’ entertainment or news. BuzzFeed’s strategy recognises that many users will engage with its content only briefly, albeit frequently. According to the company, around two thirds of its consumption is via social media networks, notably Facebook on which BuzzFeed has around 3.5 million fans, and one third direct to its own properties. 2 http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/Major-Mobile-Milestones-in-May-Apps-Now-Drive-Half-of- All-Time-Spent-on-Digital 2 | 9 Case study: BuzzFeed August 2014 The Paris café and the UK edition BuzzFeed’s growth has been fueled by popular, entertaining and fun articles, such as “50 People You Wish You Knew In Real Life”, “21 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith In Humanity” and “33 Animals Who are Extremely Disappointed in You.”3 More recently, it has moved into serious, longer-form journalism, hiring Ben Smith, the highly regarded reporter from Politico, the US political newspaper, as Editor-in-Chief in December 2011. The first big scoop was a story by Smith announcing Senator John McCain’s plan to endorse Mitt Romney as the Republic candidate for the 2012 US Presidential election.4 Since then other respected journalists have joined and the company now has an editorial team more than 200 strong. BuzzFeed’s offering has expanded to cover news, business, politics, sport, and technology, whilst continuing to publish the type of content for which it is best known. Critics of BuzzFeed argue that its low brow articles are trivial, using entertaining lists, sensationalist headlines and pet photos to attract users. However, this ignores the fact that BuzzFeed does cover serious news, even if it does so in a very informal format, which distinguishes it from traditional news providers. BuzzFeed’s model enables it to reach a youthful audience with diverse tastes that might not otherwise access news about the world around them. CEO Jonah Peretti compares BuzzFeed to a Parisian café, somewhere that “you have a copy of Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, a copy of Le Monde, the newspaper, and next to you, as is often the case in Paris, is a cute dog. You read philosophy; you read the news; you pet the dog. You don’t become stupid when you are petting the dog. You are just being human!”5 The idea that the audiences for serious news and for trivia are not mutually exclusive, in fact the opposite, is core to the company’s philosophy. As well as having both serious and light-hearted content, Buzzfeed has faced some criticism for trying to approach serious news in a light-hearted way, for example when it published a post titled “The Story Of Egypt’s Revolution In “Jurassic Park” Gifs”.6 In March 2013, BuzzFeed launched a UK edition, with Luke Lewis, a former editor of NME.com, leading the editorial team. The UK version is similar to its US parent. Articles are similarly offbeat though often with a more self-deprecatory and ironic tone. Whilst long-form investigative reporting remains primarily a US affair, mainly for reasons of scale, BuzzFeed’s UK editorial team has expanded and the company is hiring traditional journalists to cover UK news and politics. Contribution to Public Service Objectives PSO1 – Cultural activity Many BuzzFeed posts consist of comedic writing. Often the focus of these is videos or pictures from around the web, but frequently there is original comedy from the staff writers, such as ‘The 8 Most Overrated Places To Go In London If You Are A Tourist’. 3 http://mediashower.com/blog/the-5-most-viral-BuzzFeed-posts-of-all-time/; http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/video/2013/apr/03/BuzzFeed-social-web-video 4 http://www.BuzzFeed.com/BuzzFeedpolitics/mccain-to-endrose-romney-tomorrow#4gl0u6 5 http://harvardpolitics.com/united-states/BuzzFeed-cafe/ 6 http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/the-story-of-egypts-revolution-in-jurassic-park-gifs http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/07/08/buzzfeed_egyptian_revolution_in_jurassic_park_gif s_oy.html 3 | 9 Case study: BuzzFeed August 2014 PSO2 – News and current affairs BuzzFeed has a dedicated news section with global correspondents reporting on stories on the ground, with articles such as “Liberia Finally Gets More Beds For Ebola Patients, Though Most Face A Fierce Battle” and “Dozens Of People Dead And Injured After Plane Crashes Near Tehran”, as well as more ‘and finally’ style stories, such as “A Texas Mom Created An App That Makes It Impossible For Kids To Ignore Their Parents’ Texts”. This blend of the serious and light-hearted is typical of BuzzFeed, and means they are well placed for when entertainment and current affairs meet, such as “Rihanna Tweeted, Then Deleted, The Hashtag #FreePalestine”, or when they present serious news in their signature digestible format, such as “The 10 Most Insane Police Quotes From Ferguson”. News articles [Source: BuzzFeed] PSO3 – Sports and leisure BuzzFeed has a sports section, although most of the posts concern US teams and sports, which have limited appeal to UK fans. Stories often consist of amusing or interesting titbits relating to sports, rather than more traditional reporting of results or match analysis. Examples include “23 Experiences All Competitive Runners Share” and “No, North Korean Media Is Not Telling Its People They’re In The World Cup Final”. Especially with major events, there are also more traditional stories, e.g. “Brazil’s Coach Dumped After Embarrassing End To World Cup”. The sheer volume of content produced by BuzzFeed ensures that other leisure interests are also catered for. It offers a twice-weekly books newsletter by email, a food section with recipes, and publishes pieces on technology and craft projects. As always, BuzzFeed approaches these topics with a humorous, irreverent style and a focus on the niche and the unusual which is not found in traditional media. 4 | 9 Case study: BuzzFeed August 2014 Leisure content [Source: BuzzFeed] PSO5 – Factual BuzzFeed produces a steady flow of articles related to social issues, matters of international significance or matters of specialist interest. Posts such as “Inspiring Anti-Racist Protests Are Happening In Belfast Against The Huge Rise In Race Crimes” and “How Long Hours Keep Gender Segregation Alive”, as well as a robust culture of ‘below-the-line’ user commenting (where readers post comments beneath the main piece, usually from social media accounts, and can respond directly to one another) means BuzzFeed adds to discussions of social issues.