Casestudy:BuzzFeed! - Ofcom · 2016-08-25 · Enders!Analysis!!! 46A!Great!Marlborough!Street,!...

Enders Analysis 46A Great Marlborough Street, London W1F 7JW +44 207 851 0900 [email protected] August 2014

Overview

BuzzFeed describes itself as “the social news and entertainment company”, and 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.

Case study: BuzzFeed

2 | 9 Case study: BuzzFeed 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


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_gifs_oy.html


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.


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. Another example is a piece “21 Things Nobody Tells You About Being Depressed”, which originally ran before and was reposted in the aftermath of US actor Robin Williams’ apparent suicide, featuring helpful advice and links to support networks.7

‘Buzzreads’ consists of long form pieces which often contain relevant content, such as a 5,000 word profile of Patti Hammond Shaw, a transgender woman who campaigned for better treatment of transgender people by police, or a 1,500 word piece on an author’s experiences of her mother’s Parkinson’s.

Much of BuzzFeed’s news reporting informs readers about matters of international significance. “U.N. Security Council Unanimously Demands Humanitarian Aid For All Of Syria” is an example of a story with an explicitly international bent.

PSO7 – Children and young people

A lot of BuzzFeed’s content has obvious appeal to young people, especially of secondary school age. “Teenage Slang Explained By Clueless Adults” is a video aimed at the users of that slang, but many posts with less age-‐specific themes are also relevant here.

7 http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexisnedd/things-‐nobody-‐tells-‐you-‐about-‐being-‐depressed


PSO8 – Communities and regional

As demonstrated in the discussion of material relating to social issues, the interests of classes of people defined by race and sexuality are often represented. Text pieces such as “Finding Pride Twice: How I Came Out As Gay And Filipino” as well as more BuzzFeed-‐y sets of captioned photos from pop culture like “Life Before And After Coming Out Of The Closet” both represent concerns of communities.

Community-‐related content

[Source: BuzzFeed]

Local and regional life is also reflected in pieces such as “29 Things That Could Only Ever Happen In Brighton”, or “29 Words That Have A Totally Different Meaning When You Live In Wales”.

Most BuzzFeed content which reflects the lives or interests of community members is light-‐hearted and humorous, and it often approaches cultural and community topics with a unique, casual voice.

Audience reach and profile

Globally, BuzzFeed now claims to reach more than 150 million users. In the US, over 30% of internet users now visit BuzzFeed every month. Audience reach in the UK is about half that in the US but growing fast. In the year to June 2014, BuzzFeed’s UK audience tripled to 7 million, according to comScore, putting it in the top 10 news-‐related internet properties by unique users.


The combination of highly shareable news, entertainment and trivia appeals to a much younger audience than most news sites, with more than half of BuzzFeed’s UK audience aged under 35, compared to less than a third for BBC News and under half for Mail Online.

Business model and revenue

BuzzFeed’s main source of revenue comes from ‘native advertising’ – custom posts sponsored by advertisers. Running alongside editorial content, these native ads use the same formats as news articles and can be shared by users in the same way, but are clearly marked as promotions.

On 11th August 2014, BuzzFeed announced a new funding round of $50 million from US venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (valuing the business at $850 million).8 The company will use the money to expand its existing offerings, open offices in Berlin, Tokyo, Mexico City and Mumbai and launch a new division, BuzzFeed Motion Movies, based in Los Angeles, which will focus "on all moving images from a GIF to feature film and everything in between.”

8 http://www.BuzzFeed.com/BuzzFeedpress/BuzzFeed-‐announces-‐major-‐expansion-‐across-‐all-‐business-‐lines

9% 5% 5%

21% 11% 15%

27%

19% 26%

27%

41% 32%

16% 24% 22%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

BuzzFeed BBC News Mail Online

Internet audience share by age group, June 2014 (% of total)

Under-‐18 18-‐24 25-‐34 35-‐54 55+

PC, mobile and tablet users [Source: comScore MMX]

12 12

9

13

7 5 5

2 3 3

17 14 14 13 12

10 8

7 5 5

0

10

20

Top 10 UK news websites by unique users (m)

June 2013 June 2014 PC, mobile and tablet users; excludes news networks [Source: comScore MMX]


Andreesson Horowitz Partner Chris Dixon believes BuzzFeed will become a preeminent media company, comparing its use of social media and mobile platforms to Time Inc’s use of colour printing and VIACOM’s exploitation of cable TV in the US.9 Whilst BuzzFeed remains privately held and has not disclosed any revenue numbers, in his blog post announcing Andreeesen Horowitz’s investment, Chris Dixon confirmed that the company “is consistently profitable, and will generate triple digit millions in revenues this year.”

Summary BuzzFeed is emblematic of new media: responding quickly to trends, concerned more with what people want to read than with exclusives or breaking stories, and impossible to pin down into a certain genre of content (celebrity, entertainment, news, special interest). It is primarily aimed at a young, mobile-‐using audience, with an app and a heavily mobile-‐optimised website delivering largely text-‐light content. Content is designed to be highly shareable, again aimed at young people whose discovery channel begins with social media. It suggests a different way of satisfying the requirement to facilitate debate on news and current affairs and cover news in the UK and around the world: reporting in a digestible, entertaining form, not formally different from the entertainment that Buzzfeed offers.

9 http://cdixon.org/2014/08/10/BuzzFeed/


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Casestudy:BuzzFeed! - Ofcom · 2016-08-25 · Enders!Analysis!!! 46A!Great!Marlborough!Street,!...

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