Top News:
Jahnavi Nidumolu / Reuters:
Twitter drops the “Government-funded” and “state-affiliated” labels from accounts of media outlets and journalists, including NPR, BBC, CBC, RT, and Xinhua — Twitter dropped the “Government-funded” and “China state-affiliated” labels, which implies government involvement …
Discussion:
Boston Business Journal, @robertmackey, @bobbyallyn, @mattbinder, NPR, The Hill, CNN, @josephmenn, @afp, @mattbinder, The Verge, @spenolpalinusa, The Wrap, @ngrossman81, Forbes, @chadloder@kolektiva.social, @noahshachtman@mstdn.social, Gizmodo, @donmoyn, @brindusab1, @andrewfeinberg, @politicussarah, @pt, Current, @jeffveillette, @jkarsh, Al Jazeera, @wilson__valdez, @tommywalkerco, @alexvtunzelmann, @anews, @nathalieloiseau, @blackamazon, @michaelcaster, Reuters, @keithboykin, @chrisgeidner, @jesse_brenneman, The Desk, Newser, Semafor, @mattzeitlin, BBC, @defensebaron, @paleofuture, @derjarjour, @mattbinder, Fox News and @JosephMenn@infosec.exchange, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Robert Mackey / @robertmackey: Mission accomplished. While everyone was distracted by his blue-check removals, Musks's Twitter deleted labels that alerted users that they were reading news from state-run propaganda outlets of authoritarian governments. Potemkin news channels now free to inject disinformation. https://twitter.com/...
Bobby Allyn / @bobbyallyn: NEW: Elon Musk tells me Twitter has now dropped all media labels. Asked why, Musk says: “This was Walter Isaacson's suggestion.”
Matt Binder / @mattbinder: paid bluechecks with 10 followers running celebrities off the platform for simply choosing not to pay. the business genius strikes again. https://twitter.com/...
Nick Robertson / The Hill: Musk removes ‘government-funded’ labels after scrutiny leads some outlets to exit Twitter
@afp: #UPDATE Twitter has dropped “state-affiliated” and “government-funded” labels from media accounts, according to a review by @AFP on Friday of many high-profile pages on the platform Many major media outlets that had either of those tags no longer display them, according to AFP. https://twitter.com/...
Matt Binder / @mattbinder: actually, looks like when removing legacy verified blue checkmarks...Twitter accidentally removed *all* state-affiliated, government-funded, & public-funded media tags on every account not just RT...NPR, PBS, BBC, CBC...none of them have it anymore lol https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Emma Roth / The Verge: Elon Musk removes Twitter's ‘government-funded media’ labels after outlets flee the platform
@spenolpalinusa: So Musk quietly removed the “Russia state-affiliated media” label from all the Russian propaganda accounts. I suspected he would do that at some point, and it became pretty clear when he labeled CBC “69% government-funded.” The whole point was to turn the label into a joke. https://twitter.com/...
Eileen AJ Connelly / The Wrap: Twitter Drops ‘Government-Funded’ Label From NPR, PBS After News Orgs Quit Platform in Protest
Nicholas Grossman / @ngrossman81: Editor in chief of RT thanks Elon Musk for freeing her outlet from the state media label and making her appear more in searches. “Cui bono”—look for who benefits, assume they caused it—is often conspiracy theorizing. I doubt RT caused Twitter's changes. But they sure do benefit. https://twitter.com/...
Matt Novak / Forbes: Russia's RT Editor-In-Chief Thanks Elon Musk For Scrapping ‘State-Affiliated Media’ Label On Twitter
Chad Loder / @chadloder@kolektiva.social: I've been disgusted by the lack of professional solidarity among journalists ever since Musk bought Twitter. As Musk bans journalists one-by-one, their colleagues stay on Twitter, tweeting out their work, hoping that they'll survive the next round.
Noah Shachtman / @noahshachtman@mstdn.social: I don't usually go for conspiracy theories. But sometimes my mind drifts, especially when I think about who funded Musk's Twitter takeover. — I wonder: Would these people have paid billions for a third-tier social network? …
Don Moynihan / @donmoyn: Musk has dropped all labels of news organizations, meaning that the new status quo is that propaganda outlets are no longer labeled as such https://twitter.com/...
@brindusab1: #Twitter #StateAffiliatedMedia Ongoing experiments ... good or bad, only time will tell ... Some might compare yesterday's #SpaceX 2nd stage blast to Twitter's management ... https://www.reuters.com/...
Andrew Feinberg / @andrewfeinberg: Fwiw it's not clear this was intentional. It's more likely that the labels required the old blue check. Remove the check, remove the label with it. https://twitter.com/...
Sarah Reese Jones / @politicussarah: Elon doing Putin et al's bidding by erasing state affiliated media label. https://twitter.com/...
Parker / @pt: This is where you wonder whether China called him and asked if he wanted Tesla to make its APAC sales targets. I mean, he's probably just dealing with a real bad case of the anti-woke mind virus, but the point is we don't know! https://twitter.com/...
Tyler Falk / Current: Twitter drops “government-funded” label from NPR, PBS
Jeff Veillette / @jeffveillette: Just an absolute genius at work https://twitter.com/...
Jason Karsh / @jkarsh: This is the other thing Musty doesn't get. Jurnos and celebs showed up here because the place was interesting, immediate, and fun. If you turn it into Gab, white nationalists and nazis aren't fun or interesting. So tentpole users will just leave, as so many are. https://twitter.com/...
@wilson__valdez: This was always his goal. Seems pretty obvious that one of the reasons he added the labels on reputable outlets like NPR & BBC, was so he could say, “See? I just removed them all. Now everyone is equal.” He is truly a one-man disinformation machine. https://twitter.com/...
Tommy Walker / @tommywalkerco: Legacy blue tickets removed. Also “China state affiliated media” tags also gone for angry propaganda hawks. Twitter becoming a circus, anyone can say anything with no accountability nor checks. Maybe great for content but ground zero for bullshit.
Alex von Tunzelmann / @alexvtunzelmann: Just looked up the tweets and all the blue tick replies appear first under any tweet, meaning that a reader must now wade through a swamp of dullness before anyone says anything funny or interesting. So I guess that's conversation killed on here as well https://twitter.com/...
@anews: #Twitter on Friday dropped the “state-affiliated media” #tag on some accounts like National Public Radio (NPR) and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a label by the social media platform that implies #government involvement in editorial content. https://anws.link/j4b9ck
Nathalie Loiseau / @nathalieloiseau: Twitter's rapid unscheduled disassembly. #Twitter #BlueCheckMarks https://twitter.com/...
@blackamazon: So the very specific kind of flight that folks always warned of is beginning https://twitter.com/...
Michael Caster / @michaelcaster: #Twitter removed “state-affiliated media” label from some accounts. The label is important to identify government influence on editorial content but labels have also been removed from #China state-affiliated media responsible for information manipulation. https://www.reuters.com/...
Keith Boykin / @keithboykin: In a victory for NPR over Elon Musk, Twitter has dropped the “Government-funded Media” label from the National Public Radio account. @NPR recently stopped posting on Twitter, but it's unclear if the media outlet will return after Musk's new reversal. https://www.reuters.com/...
Chris Geidner / @chrisgeidner: Today in, “What are today's organizing principles, decided based on what single interaction?” https://twitter.com/...
Jesse Brenneman / @jesse_brenneman: Ah I see now. A blue check was much like a classic title or land bestowed by the monarchy, which has now been replaced by democracy (people paying a billionaire $8 for a check). https://twitter.com/...
Matthew Zeitlin / @mattzeitlin: one funny dynamic right now is that because the paid blue checks are so, uhh, intensely self-selected, if you're a Big Account, the only replies you're going to see are from paid blue checks, which may affect the Twitter Experience https://twitter.com/...
Matt Novak / @paleofuture: I know people who are really excited to read Isaacson's upcoming biography of Musk but if he's brainstorming business ideas with the billionaire that's a really bad sign. https://twitter.com/...
@derjarjour: It would be funny if it weren't truly terrifying that this platform is now run with so little care https://twitter.com/...
Matt Binder / @mattbinder: before today Joe Biden's Twitter account was labeled “US government official” after the legacy verified blue checkmarks were removed...the labels gone too https://twitter.com/...
RELATED:
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
Twitter emails advertisers to say they must now have “a verified checkmark or subscribe to either Twitter Blue or Verified Organizations” to keep running ads — As Twitter's legacy blue check mark system finally comes to an end, the social network's new paid-for verification system …
Discussion:
@mattnavarra, Mashable, MediaPost, Bloomberg, Billboard, Forbes, Variety, @jamieeast, Gizmodo, IGN, The Information, Engadget, @tante, The Daily Beast, @leratomannya, @theseantcollins, @jamespmcleod, @edzitron, @pinche_pi, @scottmonty, @petbugs13, @petershankman, @jappleby, @bradmossesq, @reportbywilson, @blackamazon, @padresj, @helenkennedy, Garbage Day, @film_girl, @bradmossesq, @peoplesoracle, @mediaevan, @mkobach, @aintscarylarry and ET Canada, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Matt Navarra / @mattnavarra: WOW... Twitter is now telling advertisers it MUST subscribe to Twitter Blue or Verified Organisations to continue running ads! https://twitter.com/...
Matt Binder / Mashable: Dril and other Twitter power users begin campaign to ‘Block the Blue’ paid checkmarks
Colin Kirkland / MediaPost: Twitter Reportedly Now Requiring All Advertisers To Pay For Verification
Hannah Dailey / Billboard: Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat & More Musicians React to Losing Their Blue Check Verification on Twitter
Dani Di Placido / Forbes: Elon Musk Mocked After Paying For Stephen King's Twitter Checkmark
Todd Spangler / Variety: Twitter Reportedly Is Now Requiring All Advertisers to Pay for Verification Unless They Spend at Least $1,000 per Month
Jamie East / @jamieeast: This is pretty hilarious. An email from twitter saying that you have to pay for verification before you can have the privilege of advertising on Twitter. Absolutely deranged. https://twitter.com/...
Adele Ankers-Range / IGN: Elon Musk Is Paying for Some Celebrities' Twitter Blue Verification
@tante: Totally not a desperate move by a company without a working strategy. https://twitter.com/...
Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast: Daily Wire Host: I'll Pay for Twitter Blue to ‘Show My Support’ for Elon Musk
@leratomannya: Lmaoooooo easiest way to piss people off, moving my focus back to Facebook, Instagram and TikTok 🫶🏾 https://twitter.com/...
Sean T. Collins / @theseantcollins: How much money will this possibly make him? Bet your bottom dollar it's less money than simply courting advertisers like a normal businesshuman would! https://twitter.com/...
James McLeod / @jamespmcleod: Elon Musk built his empire basically off massive government subsidies for EVs and rockets, and it's hilarious how he's flailing wildly running a business where he actually needs to navigate market forces and human behaviour. https://twitter.com/...
Ed Zitron / @edzitron: These changes rock because he definitely is like “yes this will get us guaranteed revenue from every advertiser” as opposed to the other way you get revenue from them - selling them advertising https://twitter.com/...
@pinche_pi: Are they also informing advertisers that many users are blocking every account that buys ads on this platform or nah? 🤔 https://twitter.com/...
Scott Monty / @scottmonty: Twitter's new advertising requirement that advertisers must be subscribed to Twitter Blue reminds me of an old National Lampoon cover... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@petbugs13: wait wait wait so what you're saying is if i install the extension that blocks blue checkmarks, i block all ads? lmfao https://techcrunch.com/...
Peter Shankman / @petershankman: “Daddy, why are the only ads on Twitter for either vape pens or penis enlargement pills?” “ Well, Timmy, a billion dollars a year in interest payments alone makes a manchild do some things he's not too proud of.” https://twitter.com/...
Jack Appleby / @jappleby: This is a colossal Elon error. Does it rationally make sense to ask companies to pay a few bucks to advertise on Twitter? I'd actually say yes. Does implementing this rule now, when advertisers are already abandoning Twitter, make ANY sense? No. https://twitter.com/...
Bradley P. Moss / @bradmossesq: Pay for a worthless blue checkmark so you can pay us to advertise on this platform. Yeah, Elon is a genius https://twitter.com/...
Teddy Wilson / @reportbywilson: “Twitter's broader verification strategy” “We're making this shit up as we go along” https://twitter.com/...
@blackamazon: The funny thing is for the most part this just means we're back in Twitter circa 2014. Like it sucks in many ways .. and a lot of the indignation is mostly about taxonomic manipulation https://twitter.com/...
Helen Kennedy / @helenkennedy: You could make a place alluring to advertisers by getting rid of racist undesirables, not pushing your politics and juvenile humor on users, and verifying identities. Or you could demand advertisers pay for the privilege of paying you. https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Broderick / Garbage Day: “You're welcome namaste 🙏” — I Have Grown Tired Of Being An Unwilling Participant …
Christina Warren / @film_girl: The remaining sales people at Twitter must hate their boss so much. What a disaster. https://twitter.com/...
Bradley P. Moss / @bradmossesq: Was anyone getting ads in the past from accounts that were not verified already? https://twitter.com/...
Dayna Lynn Nuckolls / @peoplesoracle: So he's intentionally bankrupting this platform, yes? Or is he really that bad at product development and revenue creation? Both? https://twitter.com/...
Evan DeSimone / @mediaevan: Not sure I'd go swinging this leverage around if my ad platform was the least critical one in everyone's stack. https://twitter.com/...
Matthew Kobach / @mkobach: Twitter ALWAYS should have charged businesses to use their platform. https://twitter.com/...
@aintscarylarry: Elon Musk's rapid scheduled disassembly of twitter is really accelerating. #ElonMuskIsaGiantTurd https://twitter.com/...
Dara Kerr / NPR:
Sources: Twitter removed its “visibility filtering rules”, or “shadow bans”, for Russian, Chinese, and Iranian government accounts and state-affiliated media — Dmitry Medvedev, a leading government official and former president of Russia, took to Twitter earlier …
Discussion:
@jesselehrich, @scottsigler, @cendemtech, @inafried, @akinunver, @dfrlab, @brianmannadk, Mashable and Associated Press, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Jesse Lehrich / @jesselehrich: Elon has fully unshackled CCP & Kremlin propaganda. now Dmitry Medvedev is getting 7,000 RTs calling for genocide. https://www.npr.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Scott Sigler / @scottsigler: This won't impact elections at all, I'm sure. Pretty comprehensive write up — the bots are back in town. “Twitter once muzzled Russian and Chinese state propaganda. That's over now” https://www.npr.org/... https://twitter.com/...
@cendemtech: “Taking the restraints off state-affiliated media accounts could also lead to more general #disinformation on Twitter, said @Sarah_G_Cook, senior advisor at @FreedomHouse who researches China, Hong Kong & Taiwan:” https://www.npr.org/...
@akinunver: The correct angle here is for Twitter to muzzle propaganda from *all* governments. It is a bit unrealistic and long-term unsustainable to think that it is only China, Russia and Iran that do propaganda and not others. https://twitter.com/...
@dfrlab: @Twitter ... Following @DFRLab's investigation, @NPR confirmed @Twitter made the deliberate decision to stop filtering government accounts in Russia, China, and Iran. @Reuters reported Twitter had removed its state media labels from said countries' accounts as well. https://www.npr.org/...
Brian Mann / @brianmannadk: Twitter in the Musk era looking more and more like the public square — if you mean Tiananmen Square and Red Square. 🤔 https://www.npr.org/...
Chase DiBenedetto / Mashable: LGBTQ centers leave Twitter following removal of hateful conduct protections
Hillary Frey / Slate:
A defense of Jonah Peretti, who kept BuzzFeed News going longer than others would have, while Facebook's pivot from news caused his creation's downfall — I heard about BuzzFeed News shutting down right before it hit Twitter. Word travels fast among industry old-timers like myself, and we try to keep each other in the loop.
Discussion:
@brianstelter, The Present Age, Vanity Fair, Defector, CNN, @froomkin, @oliverdarcy, @pressgirlk, @troyericg, @benpauker, @mckinneykelsey, @ylichterman, @mrwaltershapiro, @ellencscott, @dannygroner, @caleweissman, @igorbobic, @niketa, @baekdal, @mediaevan, What's New in Publishing and Media Voices
Discussion:
Brian Stelter / @brianstelter: “The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you. That's actually always been the case with journalism... The 2010s were a detour, not the new path forward.” —@hilella https://slate.com/...
Parker Molloy / The Present Age: What Now For Media? — Yesterday, BuzzFeed announced the shuttering of its news division, BuzzFeed News 1.
Diana Moskovitz / Defector: Greed Is Still The Problem
Oliver Darcy / CNN: BuzzFeed News will shut down
@froomkin: A hopeful view: “being free of our reliance on tech platforms is going to be better for our business. The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you.” https://twitter.com/...
Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy: A spokesperson for BuzzFeed News told me that there are “ongoing discussions” about the future of the outlet's website, but said that all the work will be archived and available after the newsroom shutters. Full story here: https://www.cnn.com/...
@pressgirlk: Great, nuanced piece. I appreciate the focus on the deep impact @facebook has had on shaping news revenue models - bc it's not only a U.S. problem. Sure, today @facebook is cutting its news media partnerships, but hopefully we won't forget the harms of its undelivered promises. https://twitter.com/...
Troy Griggs / @troyericg: 'They raised up a generation of journalists that have made our industry better and smarter. It is crushing that it's going away for good. I believe that it's bad for journalism, and even democracy.' https://twitter.com/...
Ben Pauker / @benpauker: “The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you. That's actually always been the case with journalism.” smart read by @hilella https://twitter.com/...
Kelsey Mckinney / @mckinneykelsey: the media analysis in this piece is good! The retrospective on how we got here is good! But people (who? me? link your sources!) are mad because their FAILURES affect everyone but them. https://slate.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Joseph Lichterman / @ylichterman: “The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you...Looking back on it all, the 2010s were a detour, not the new path forward.” https://slate.com/...
Walter Shapiro / @mrwaltershapiro: This is by far the smartest and most honest media piece on the sad death of BuzzFeed News. And I so support @hilella ode to home pages and loyal readers. https://twitter.com/...
Ellen C Scott / @ellencscott: this is it. you can only rely on FB etc for so long; one day the bubble will burst. Loyalty takes a lot longer to build and too many big bosses aren't patient enough to invest in that long-term. Now you've got a lot of publications panicking about social traffic dropping and... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Danny Groner / @dannygroner: “I did not enjoy my time at Politico, but I learned a lot about what can happen if you pump a bunch of stuff into the universe with clicky headlines on a homepage crammed with them.” https://twitter.com/...
Cale G Weissman / @caleweissman: the smartest and most succinct take on buzzfeed/state of media i've read thus far: https://slate.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Igor Bobic / @igorbobic: “Newsroom workers needed assurances of severance and basic workplace protections even as the executives who were determined to get “in” with Facebook and ride the next trend always seemed to pop up elsewhere and do it all over again.” https://twitter.com/...
Niketa Patel / @niketa: Good read by @hilella https://twitter.com/...
Thomas Baekdal / @baekdal: Time out. Sure Facebook has not been kind to publishers, but to base your publication on random traffic from another site was a fools errand no matter what Facebook did. We cannot blame Facebook for the demise of Buzzfeed News. It never had a lasting business model to begin with https://twitter.com/...
RELATED:
Ben Smith / Semafor:
The end of BuzzFeed News signals a vast shift in digital media: the old way of thinking about news as text distributed primarily on social media has passed — My old boss and partner Jonah Peretti announced today that he's shutting down BuzzFeed News, which we built together starting in 2012.
Discussion:
CNN, Washington Post, Vox, Financial Times, @jeanlucr, @jakeadelstein, @brianstelter, @terryglavin, @masurakusuo, @nmasc_, @nmasc_, @tednesi, @justinhendrix, @brandyzadrozny, @scaachi, @leighgiangreco, @lisatozzi, @chronotope, @lorenzofb, @cassiefambro, @tasneemn, @sonnybunch, @ledbettercarly, @apbenven, @kaiseratcb, @rklein90, @katie_rayford, @jonfriedman, @ciciadams_, @kerrymflynn, @azi, @chaykak, @semaforben, @ashleyfeinberg, Los Angeles Times, @Jonathanglick@mstdn.social, @brooklynmarie@mastodon.social, @Jonathanglick@mstdn.social, @_L1vY_@mstdn.social and @Jonathanglick@mstdn.social
Discussion:
Peter Kafka / Vox: RIP, BuzzFeed News. Who's next?
Jean-Luc Raymond / @jeanlucr: ✅ The end of the #BuzzFeed era in #news or the lure of the grail of #SocialMedia distribution for news https://www.semafor.com/...
Brian Stelter / @brianstelter: The end of BuzzFeed News “signals a vast shift in digital media that those of us who live inside it are feeling intensely right now, the end of one era and the beginning of another,” @semaforben writes https://www.semafor.com/...
Terry Glavin / @terryglavin: Whatever one thinks of Buzzfeed, it really is awful that the BuzzFeed News crew is getting turfed. Some may end up at Huffpo & I expect most will land on their feet, but the news side did terrific work in #Xinjiang a couple years back. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
@masurakusuo: I felt nostalgic when I read this sentence from @semaforben . Nostalgia, one of the elements that makes people want to share. The end of the BuzzFeed era in news https://www.semafor.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Natasha Mascarenhas / @nmasc_: The piece also has a vivid account of what it's like to see a media company change after it takes venture capital money, and the “zombified form of Buzzfeed” ahead. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Natasha Mascarenhas / @nmasc_: “The Internet of the 2010s Ended Today” @cwarzel beautifully captures a definitive, focused newsroom and the outsized influence it has had in our world https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Ted Nesi / @tednesi: “Peretti had built BuzzFeed into a traffic juggernaut by being among the first to see the rising social web. But BuzzFeed never found a new path when that trend turned against us” https://www.semafor.com/...
Justin Hendrix / @justinhendrix: “Once, I got assigned to follow exotic dancers around at a predawn chicken-wing-eating contest.” A @cwarzel love letter to BuzzFeed News. Hard to estimate the importance of its investigative and political reporting, particularly on tech. RIP. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Brandy Zadrozny / @brandyzadrozny: This is the thing. Buzzfeed News was revolutionary because it reported on the internet like it was a real place. Great piece on the death of something special by one (of many) of its greats, @cwarzel. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@scaachi: not one “this is why buzzfeed news folded” article has been accurate. it's really interesting being in the eye of this particular storm because i get to see how wrong you all are, and while i'm sad for our newsroom, i am thrilled to be right and see other people be wrong.
Leigh Giangreco / @leighgiangreco: “The BuzzFeed era of media is now officially over. What comes next in the ChatGPT era is likely to be just as disruptive, but I doubt it'll be as joyous and chaotic. And I guarantee it'll feel less human.” @cwarzel https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Lisa Tozzi / @lisatozzi: “The emphasis was on doing the old-fashioned thing: finding an original story that told people something new, held people to account, or simply delighted. The traffic would come.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Aram Zucker-Scharff / @chronotope: One of the big mistakes in the analysis of the media biz is the claim that the internet disrupted journalism/media. The internet disrupted local monopolies journalism outlets had. Big journalism wasn't a business model, there's never been a business model. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@lorenzofb: Read this by @cwarzel, he put it better than I could have. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Cassie / @cassiefambro: This one will pull your heartstrings, journalists. And people who care about journalism. Extremely well-written. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Tasneem Nashrulla / @tasneemn: my former boss aka my current boss @semaforben reflects on the end of the @BuzzFeedNews era and his own regrets: https://www.semafor.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Sonny Bunch / @sonnybunch: I guess this isn't that bold of a take, but: I am increasingly of the opinion that click/ad-based journalism has no future and if you cannot convince a critical mass of people to pay for your reporting/writing you will not make it. https://www.semafor.com/...
Carly Ledbetter / @ledbettercarly: So much solidarity for our Buzzfeed News and Buzzfeed colleagues. Beyond upsetting day today. https://twitter.com/...
Alexis Benveniste / @apbenven: In an email, BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti announced the end of BuzzFeed News. “While layoffs are occurring across nearly every division, we've determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a standalone organization.” The end of an era.
Rebecca Klein / @rklein90: There is so much to say about BuzzFeed News. But for reporters entering the industry in the 2010s, it was the gold standard — a beacon of hope. This is a terrible day and the end of an era. If I can help anyone, provide an ear, advice...please reach out.
Katie Rayford / @katie_rayford: been sitting here trying to craft a tweet, but all I got is: I'm proud of what BuzzFeed News built & proud to have been a part of it —truly had the best time growing up in that newsroom w/ so many exceptionally smart, funny & kind people End of an era! (Where are the drinks?) https://twitter.com/...
Jonathan Friedman / @jonfriedman: worthwhile piece from @semaforben (née @buzzfeedben) on the end of his old newsroom, and proclaiming the challenge of the new era: “[building] direct connections with an audience... overwhelmed by the decaying social web” https://www.semafor.com/... https://twitter.com/...
CiCi Adams / @ciciadams_: Buzzfeed News gave us groundbreaking investigations into R. Kelly, money laundering at big banks, & modern Chinese internment camps. Along with 180 people losing their jobs, shuttering Buzzfeed News means journalism will lose a wealth of important reporting. This is terrible.
Kerry Flynn / @kerrymflynn: “My own regret is not aligning a strong business with our news operation from the start, something I knew little about and wasn't particularly good at. Peretti is obviously right that he, and we, could have managed better.” - @semaforben https://www.semafor.com/...
Kyle Chayka / @chaykak: “the new challenge is to build direct connections with an audience that's still overwhelmed by the decaying social web, and eager to find great journalism they can trust.” https://www.semafor.com/...
Ashley Feinberg / @ashleyfeinberg: i don't know man, seems like if you fucked up as bad as you say you did you shouldn't be the one who gets to keep your job! https://twitter.com/...
Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times: From BuzzFeed to Netflix, digital media promised revolution. And a bloody business it's been
Jonathan Glick / @Jonathanglick@mstdn.social: @_L1vY_ @Mediagazer There will always be a next thing. The question is whether you really have anything to communicate. Buzzfeed had the talent — but as an institution, it never had a journalistic purpose.
Brooke Binkowski / @brooklynmarie@mastodon.social: @Jonathanglick @Mediagazer Yep. It's just poor decisions and labor theft all the way down.
Jonathan Glick / @Jonathanglick@mstdn.social: @brooklynmarie You're right. What it really is: a dependency on the latest social distribution trend (facebook! Tiktok) instead of making a direct connection with a community who cares about your work
Charlie Warzel / The Atlantic:
The legacy of BuzzFeed News has two parts: brilliant stories and alumni, and also the tragedy of mismanagement and impossible, ceaseless exponential growth
Discussion:
Hillary Frey / @hilella: Perhaps at my own peril I shared thoughts I have about digital media over the last decade. https://slate.com/...
Doree Shafrir / @doree: Charlie really captures here what it was like to work at BuzzFeed at the height of its popularity (and the height of its getting investor cash) https://twitter.com/...
Maria Cristina Sherman / @mariasherm: i started my career at buzzfeed. i still work with some of the editors and writers i met there. (truthfully, it is unclear whether or not i would've gone anywhere/done anything without the guidance and support of @SteveKandell) this is devastating news https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@slate: BuzzFeed News' death takes a lot of the internet's promise with it. Could that be good for journalism in the long run? https://slate.com/...
Sally Shin / @sallyshin: If you are reading one story about @BuzzFeedNews today, please make it this one. Poignantly written by none other than @cwarzel “The Internet of the 2010s Ended Today — BuzzFeed News was more than a website: It defined an era.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Ben Dreyfuss / @bendreyfuss: This is a manifestly false statement that anyone can see is false by just pulling up comscore and looking at slate's traffic. https://twitter.com/...
Amber / @missrobinson: This is the online media landscape in a nutshell, and why it's practically impossible for newcomers to be profitable. Online ads are worthless and building subs revenue is hard. #BuzzFeedNews https://slate.com/...? https://twitter.com/...
Anne Helen Petersen / @annehelen: Still just thinking about the murderers' row of talent now former to to BuzzFeed News https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Mark Joseph Stern / @mjs_dc: This @hilella postmortem on BuzzFeed doubles as an industry insider's view of everything that went right, and wrong, with digital media over the last ~15 years. Really fascinating stuff. https://slate.com/...
Luke Baker / @bakerluke: A valuable read for anyone interested in the business of journalism — BuzzFeed News ends: Who is really to blame for the site's demise? https://slate.com/...
Heidi N. Moore / @moorehn: You do not, under any circumstances, have to hand it to Jonah Peretti for building BuzzFeed. He was also the one who, for profit, voluntarily drove it into the ground https://slate.com/...
Kalli Anderson / @kallipearl: “It took less than four years to fully internalize the lesson that venture capitalism is just a form of gambling: You invest in 10 companies to make money off one, and employees are the chips.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Scott Nover / @scottnover: This is a smart point by @slate's @hilella on digital media. https://slate.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Lydia Polgreen / @lpolgreen: So much hard earned and big hearted wisdom from one of the best in the game,@hilella. BuzzFeed News ends: Who is really to blame for the site's demise? https://slate.com/...
@ethangach: Often think about how foundational Google feels to the modern internet that people rarely mention it in the same breath as Facebook when it comes damage done to media by social platforms https://slate.com/...
@jon_fischer: A good, sympathetic @hilella autopsy of BuzzFeed News that zeroes in on the fickleness of social-media giants, and the foolishness of media to ever depend on them for distribution https://slate.com/...
@mediaguildwest: “The whiplash was never ending, and the collateral damage was always the journalists and producers who had been hired to do the next cool thing. No wonder unionization swept digital media.” https://slate.com/...
Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel: anyhow here's a eulogy of sorts for that https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel: I wrote about six amazing, insane years working in the beating heart of the 2010s internet, the two legacies of BuzzFeed News (one is good, one is very sad)...and a whole bunch of wild office interactions like this one https://www.theatlantic.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
New York Times:
Memo: BuzzFeed shuts down News and cuts ~180 jobs, or ~15% of its staff; Jonah Peretti: “we will have a single news brand in HuffPost, which is profitable”
Discussion:
@oliverdarcy, Nieman Lab, @film_girl, Talking Points Memo, @gamoid, @davidmackau, @genepark, The Daily Beast, @kelsaywhat, Talking Biz News, @maxseddon, The Independent, @addysbaird, @maxseddon, Poynter, Vanity Fair, @mathewi, @slimjosa, @walldo, @thestalwart, @rafat, @brucebartlett, Axios, @nytimestech, @howardfineman, @jgrebes, Wall Street Journal, Axios, @carnage4life, @briannawu, @dougsaunders, @janelytv, @liamstack, @paldhous, @tomgara, @katenocera, @thebrianpenny, @bcmerchant, @petersterne, @simonateba, @sizpatel, @katienotopoulos, @panzer, @atrupar, @tess_townsend, @rahawahaile, The Verge, @matthewsitman, @iansherr, @rdrv3, @michaelrcaputo, @shannon_liao, @medinamora, @lolacoaster, @mikeduncan, @jowrotethis, @niketa, @katie_robertson, @craftingmystyle, @agraybee, @pt, @stephaniemlee, @ericnewcomer, @karlbode, @haleaziz, @sarahkendzior, @supermathskid, @vv1lder, @sarayasin, @oliverdarcy, @apbenven, @reichlinmelnick, @jane__bradley, @katienotopoulos, @ericnewcomer, PenguinRandomhouse.com, @benmullin, @silvermanjacob, @kantrowitz, @sapna, @maxseddon, @harry1t6, @euamiri, @cbellantoni, @mcbyrne, @charliekirk11, @bcmerchant, @skbaer, @cfarivar, @byjoelanderson, @tomgara, @johnpaczkowski, @johnpaczkowski, @oneunderscore__, @radbrowndads, @jbenton, @hansmahncke, @freeblackgirl, @lwalubengo, @tomgara, @micsolana, @edzitron, @waouwwaouw, @davidmackau, @jayasax, @calebjhull, @sapna, @markseibel, @mnshap, @valeriereports, @film_girl, @papapishu, @rvawonk, @jason, @gregbensinger, @benmullin, @awolfeful, @kenbensinger, @marcusgilmer, @sarahw, @ncksmmrs, @kpfallon, @mediumsizemeech, @1followernodad, @nycsouthpaw, @wesyang, @harrymccracken, @edmundlee, @sdkstl, @annabroges, @pfpicardi, @mikeisaac, @brandyzadrozny, @rdrv3, @sarafischer, @alexckaufman, @oliviasolon, @hardin, @tomnamako, @lucas_shaw, @jeffjarvis, @kemc, @selviano, @lucas_shaw, @pdmcleod, @lucas_shaw, @kfile, @oliverdarcy, @abgutman, @chelseacirruzzo, @daveyalba, @bernstein, @chaykak, @fortesalatifi, @kateaurthur, @jon_christian, @russbengtson, @oliverdarcy, @film_girl, @film_girl@mastodon.social, @film_girl@mastodon.social, @film_girl@mastodon.social, CNBC, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, @caseynewton@mastodon.social, Gizmodo, Mediaite, @kevincollier@mastodon.social, @howelloneill@infosec.exchange, The Information, Variety and @benmullin, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy: NEWS: BuzzFeed News is being shut down.
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab: A history of BuzzFeed News, Part II: 2017-2023
Christina Warren / @film_girl: BuzzFeed's SPAC should go down in history as one of media's greatest blunders. In the next few days/hours, you'll see a lot of stories trying to pin this on AI. That's incorrect. This is all b/c of the failure of the SPAC and the fact that BF was not ready to be a public company.
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo: Journalism's Wild Ride and the End of Buzzfeed News
Matt Weinberger / @gamoid: I'll have more to say later, but I was affected by these layoffs. For now, please spare a thought for all the excellent journalists who are now out of a job. https://twitter.com/...
David Mack / @davidmackau: what a ride!!! 8.5 years!!!
Gene Park / @genepark: journalism is unique in that winning the most prestigious, hard-to-win award does not at all guarantee any kind of job security. WaPo laid off two Pulitzer winners in the last 6 months too. none of that history mattered. https://twitter.com/...
Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast: BuzzFeed News Is Shutting Down
Kelsey Weekman / @kelsaywhat: Just lost my job I think! Please hire me. Reporting on internet culture has been my dream. kelseyweekman@gmail.com https://twitter.com/...
Mariam Ahmed / Talking Biz News: BuzzFeed's shutdown shocker, Miami Herald layoffs, USA Today EIC departs: TBN Ticker for April 21
Max Seddon / @maxseddon: My most BuzzFeed-y story is about “the greatest day on the internet,” where people went absolutely wild about what color that dress is and some escaped llamas. It was probably the peak day in the history of the website, or even more, as @cwarzel argues. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
Bevan Hurley / The Independent: BuzzFeed News is ‘beginning the process’ of closing down, CEO tells staff
Addy Baird / @addysbaird: i don't even know what to say. @peretti broke his promises to staff over and over and over again, and there's a reason we fought tooth and nail for the strongest contract possible. i am heartbroken.
Max Seddon / @maxseddon: Very sad news. @semaforben and @MiriamElder hired me to cover Russia when I was 25, with less than a year of professional experience and even less clue what I was doing. Months later I wound up covering a revolution and a war. At its best it was an incredible place to work. https://twitter.com/...
Mathew Ingram / @mathewi: This is 100 percent accurate. Related: BuzzFeed is at 75 cents a share, meaning it has lost approximately 90 percent of its value since it went public https://twitter.com/...
@slimjosa: The amount of people saying “we won” in response to this have no idea how grim this actually is. Buzzfeed News' award-winning investigative reporting literally freed a man who was falsely imprisoned for 23 years by a Chicago detective We're actually losing some great reporting https://twitter.com/...
Brandon Wall / @walldo: May 5 would have been my 8th anniversary at @BuzzFeedNews. I'm devastated beyond words, but I'm SO proud of what we accomplished I couldn't asked for a more incredible group of internet-addled weirdos to do this all with; I wouldn't be the journalist I am today without them ❤️
Joe Weisenthal / @thestalwart: If you weren't in it, it's hard to fathom the absolute psychological grip that Buzzfeed had on the NYC digital media scene last decade. This was a real thing that someone wrote and it was not a parody https://www.theawl.com/...
@rafat: The Age of Disposable Media has been here for a while, we just haven't adjusted to it. My brief thoughts on BFN demise, in NYT. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Bruce Bartlett / @brucebartlett: It's all my fault but I get to keep my job and you lose yours. Succinct description of 21st century capitalism, https://twitter.com/...
Sara Fischer / Axios: BuzzFeed News shutters amid digital media reckoning
@nytimestech: “I'm proud of the work that BuzzFeed News did, but I think this moment is part of the end of a whole era of media,” said Ben Smith, the founding editor of BuzzFeed News. “It's the end of the marriage between social media and news.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@howardfineman: The irony! (I know; I was there.) #Peretti is the guru who launched #HuffPost based on search, then left to found #BuzzFeed, a rival based on social. Now he's folding the latter into the former, which is profitable, he says, cuz it doesn't rely on social! https://variety.com/...
James Grebey / @jgrebes: when I got laid off from a digital media company years ago, I made the managing editor who did the axing cry when i asked her how many times the business plan needed to fail before the people in charge of making the plan suffered instead of the journalists. thinking about that...
Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal: BuzzFeed Moves to Close BuzzFeed News, Lays Off 15% of Staff
Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life: BuzzFeed News is shutting down and the big lesson here is that not every business is a VC scale investment. This could have been a sustainable news business but almost $700M in VC funding created unrealistic expectations. A zero interest rate phenomenon https://www.axios.com/...
Brianna Wu / @briannawu: Yet another blow to democracy - Buzzfeed had some of the most hard hitting investigative journalism of the Trump era. A media market that cannot make that level of investigative work economically viable is a market that needs structural reform. https://twitter.com/...
Doug Saunders / @dougsaunders: I'm generationally isolated enough that I didn't fully realize BuzzFeed had anything other than a news division. But it has been a superb news operation, employing (and often giving a career start to) some of the best journos in North America https://www.nytimes.com/...
Jane Lytvynenko / @janelytv: Absolutely devastating decision. BuzzFeed News was a powerhouse news organization and now it's leaving reporters in a lurch. BuzzFeed News deserves better, BuzzFeed reporters deserve better. https://twitter.com/...
Liam Stack / @liamstack: Today's media environment feels about a million miles away from the days when The Awl (a website that no longer exists) published a piece called “I Hate Myself Because I Don't Work For BuzzFeed” (a website that just killed its news division) https://www.theawl.com/...
Peter Aldhous / @paldhous: Well, well ... look who paid for Twitter (but not other things) https://twitter.com/...
Kate Nocera / @katenocera: EVERY. TIME. https://twitter.com/...
Brian Penny / @thebrianpenny: @bcmerchant Buzzfeed and HuffPost largely grew on the backs of free human content. It's heartwarming to know they're still willing to exploit “creators” alongside their AI...
Brian Merchant / @bcmerchant: @petersterne This is my theory of generative AI and labor pretty much across the board!
Peter Sterne / @petersterne: @bcmerchant My theory of journalism and generative AI is that AI tools cannot and will not replace actual journalists *but* will still be used as an excuse for laying off journalists.
Simon Ateba / @simonateba: ATTACKING ME: This guy @mattmittenthal who claims to be VP, Communications for BuzzFeed, Inc came to attack me in a DM, he's so mad I tweeted @BuzzFeedNews is closing. He wanted me to retweet that while Buzzfeed News is shutting down but the parent company is still standing... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Sahil Patel / @sizpatel: BuzzFeed's business continues to be in bad shape. While CEO Jonah Peretti has decided to shut down BuzzFeed News, some investors and shareholders would like to see him sell the whole company. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
Katie Notopoulos / @katienotopoulos: RIP BuzzFeed News. I know a lot of my wonderful current and former colleagues are proud of the important and powerful work they did here, and rightfully so. But for me, I got to fuck around and post stupid shit with my buddies - literally my only life dream - for 11 years.
Aaron Rupar / @atrupar: SCOOP: Elon Musk is no longer removing legacy blue checks, but instead will require all users to post at least one tweet a week discussing a quality of his they admire in order to maintain active accounts on the platform.
Tess / @tess_townsend: This is so tragic. Buzzfeed news did so much amazing work. Just crazy. Win a Pulitzer as a very young news company, get shut down just six years later. https://twitter.com/...
Rahawa Haile / @rahawahaile: In 2014, BuzzFeed/Vice/DB were reporting DEEPLY on African refugees in Israel and the Mediterranean when trad US media refused to. I'm not just mourning the talented journalists who will lose their jobs from mismanagement but the scope of reporting made possible because of them. https://twitter.com/...
Jay Peters / The Verge: BuzzFeed News is being shut down
Matthew Sitman / @matthewsitman: Shouldn't he be the one to lose his job then? https://twitter.com/...
Ian Sherr / @iansherr: Feeling for my friends at BuzzFeed, Insider and elsewhere. What a terrible few months this has been for everyone.
David Ruddock / @rdrv3: Everyone in media knows the revenue model is broken. Direct ads are incredibly volatile and go through prolonged droughts. Programmatic ads are a race to the bottom on operational costs. Paywall is the only solution. But we all know something else: Most people will never pay.
That Michael Caputo / @michaelrcaputo: .@BuzzFeedNews helped create the Russian Collusion Hoax and a key hoaxer there told a woman I know that the publication would bury me. One of us didn't get buried. The other died today. Cheers. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Shannon Liao / @shannon_liao: buzzfeed news is shutting down. CEO points to challenges including the pandemic, admits that he could have done better but he doesn't mention stepping down while 15% of staff is cut https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@medinamora: One day I will write an essay about how, between 2014 and 2017, BuzzFeed News was low-key one of the best writing schools in the US. It'd be a matter of listing the books, TV shows, movies that BF people went on to write. Today, tho? Today I'm just bummed. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Kristin Chirico / @lolacoaster: Sometimes I wonder if the only thing p*reti is actually exceptional at is making a lot of talented and wonderful people have absolutely terrible days https://twitter.com/...
Mike Duncan / @mikeduncan: This not doubling as a letter of resignation is frankly pathetic https://twitter.com/...
Joanna Robinson / @jowrotethis: Fuuuuuuck. Everyone I knew who worked there left already but my heart goes out to the remaining writers coders etc etc etc etc. This is awful. https://twitter.com/...
Niketa Patel / @niketa: Wow....thinking of the incredible team at @BuzzFeedNews. So many incredible journalists that should be snapped up ASAP. https://twitter.com/...
Katie Robertson / @katie_robertson: BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti apologized to the BuzzFeed News team for the closure in a meeting this morning, saying: “It is clearly a massive failure on my part and I am deeply sorry for it.” https://www.nytimes.com/... from @BenMullin and me
Aisha Harris / @craftingmystyle: Wild how when companies announce layoffs, the CEOs often apologize for managing poorly ... and yet it's the ones who didn't make any mistakes (and who don't make anything close to the amount of $$ the C-suite folks do) who pay the price 🫠 https://twitter.com/...
@agraybee: Not sure if this has been mentioned but note they like HuffPo because it's “not dependent on social platforms.” I wonder what social platform has recently become unreliable. https://twitter.com/...
Parker / @pt: @EricNewcomer Buzzfeed couldn't make their news biz work bc you can't sell clickbait and trust at the same time. The news biz requires trust & sells subs as a result. So I'd challenge the idea BF is the future of news even if it's the future of text-based entertainment.
Stephanie M. Lee / @stephaniemlee: This is devastating and enraging. Being part of this brilliant team from 2015-2022 was a dream. We broke news — and the internet — constantly, won a PULITZER, and did the most ambitious stories we could dream up. Now it's just being thrown away. Solidarity with @bfnewsunion. https://twitter.com/...
Eric Newcomer / @ericnewcomer: while I think the BuzzFeed story types were indeed the future of news, the narrative mistake was tracking venture dollars as the best predictor of the future of the media business. look at the hype around buzzfeed news relative to the information. One is still thriving. https://twitter.com/...
Karl Bode / @karlbode: we throw countless billions at everything from nazi influencers to obvious crypto scams, but developing creative funding models for independent journalism is always somehow a bridge too far https://twitter.com/...
Hamed Aleaziz / @haleaziz: Just awful, awful news. BuzzFeed had a Pulitzer-prize winning newsroom full of dedicated reporters at one point — that's all gone now. https://twitter.com/...
Sarah Kendzior / @sarahkendzior: BuzzFeed News was one of few outlets to report in depth about transnational organized crime and its ties to government. The type of reporting they were doing a few years ago has essentially vanished, despite the topic's popularity. I wonder what will happen to their archives. https://twitter.com/...
Katie Spalding / @supermathskid: Oh man, this sucks. BuzzFeed News has been responsible for some genuinely amazing and important journalism, and if you never noticed it's just because you got it confused with BuzzFeed dot com https://twitter.com/...
Emily Wilder / @vv1lder: so many good people getting shafted by this industry yet again. @AlbertSamaha gave me my first big opportunity to take on an ambitious freelance project for bn when i was v green and recovering from an awful journalism experience myself. this sucks so bad https://twitter.com/...
Sara Yasin / @sarayasin: I dreamt of working at @BuzzFeedNews the way a lot of you dreamt of a career at @nytimes. The time I spent there rarely ever felt like working because it was always fun, even when it was hard. I am devastated for the people losing their jobs and for our industry
Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy: BuzzFeed's founding editor-in-chief, @semaforben, tells me he is “heartsick” about the news of his former outlet's death. “I do think it makes really clear the relationship between news publishers and social media is pretty much over.”
Alexis Benveniste / @apbenven: Here's a list of talented writers who worked at @BuzzFeedNews. You should hire them. • @elamin88 — writer at large • @juliareinstein — senior reporter • @kelsaywhat — internet culture writer • @katienotopoulos — tech reporter • @ellievhall — senior reporter
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick / @reichlinmelnick: A big loss. Their immigration coverage was outstanding for years, breaking multiple stories about the Trump administration (and making @Haleaziz a well-deserved star of the beat). https://twitter.com/...
Jane Bradley / @jane__bradley: BuzzFeed gave a lot of new journalists their big breaks & the rest of us the resources and backing to do big, important stories that nobody else was doing at the time. Its reporters have deserved a lot better for a long while and many are now available to hire! https://twitter.com/...
Katie Notopoulos / @katienotopoulos: this stunt marketing for ben smith's new book is really in poor taste imo
Eric Newcomer / @ericnewcomer: Very sad to see the demise of BuzzFeed News. While the business model was deeply flawed, the stories were excellent!
Ben Smith / PenguinRandomhouse.com: Traffic — Buy the Audiobook Download: — Apple- Audible- downpour- eMusic- audiobooks.com
Jacob Silverman / @silvermanjacob: waiting for an AI to replace Jonah Peretti https://twitter.com/...
Alex Kantrowitz / @kantrowitz: I spent five years at BuzzFeed News, and it's hard to explain how great it was to be in that newsroom. The publication opened itself up to people from untraditional backgrounds (I came from ad tech) and let them tackle the world's biggest stories. It reported without fear and... https://twitter.com/...
Sapna Maheshwari / @sapna: fwiw, there are 32 people in the former BuzzFeed slack at the NYT. just thinking of all the awesome people who worked there and those who are dealing with all of this today.
Max Seddon / @maxseddon: @semaforben @MiriamElder I still don't think I've ever had as much fun on a story as our attempt with @RosieGray to work out why Putin and Steven Seagal were friends. It was the kind of weird, anarchic investigative reporting BFN did better than anyone else. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
Harry Khachatrian / @harry1t6: So it begins. ChatGPT claims its first scalp https://twitter.com/...
Ehsanullah Amiri / @euamiri: BuzzFeed News is shutting down, the once-iconic media brand's founder and CEO Jonah Peretti announced in a company-wide memo on Thursday. https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ...
Christina Bellantoni / @cbellantoni: Awful news as our journalism students are about to graduate into an even tougher job market. So sorry to see this hit such a talented newsroom. https://twitter.com/...
Charlie Kirk / @charliekirk11: 7 Reasons BuzzFeed News is Shutting Down (You Won't Believe #3!) 1. Turns out crummy listicles don't pay in the long run. Who knew? 2. On issues like LGBT insanity and “anti-racism,” BuzzFeed said “there are not two sides” and they wouldn't even pretend to offer objective... https://twitter.com/...
Brian Merchant / @bcmerchant: Annnnnnd there it is — it's subtle, but unmistakable. In the same memo in which he dispatches the News team, Buzzfeed's boss heralds the company's future as being “creators...” and “AI.” Even if he's not replacing jobs outright, the calculus of mentioning it here is clear. https://twitter.com/...
Stephanie K. Baer / @skbaer: Heartbroken isn't strong enough of a word to describe how I'm feeling right now. I'm 34 weeks pregnant with my first child and was about to go on leave. I'm not sure what's next, but I am so proud to have been a part of this newsroom these past 5+ years.
@cfarivar: I first took notice of @BuzzFeedNews when I heard the @Radiolab version of that BFN story from 2014 on the AUMF. In the ensuing years, I became jealous of many stories that they did — in particular the tech desk — and am honored to work with no less than 5 BFN alumni. RIP.
Joel D. Anderson / @byjoelanderson: My friends at BuzzFeed News have deserved better for a long time. This is pathetic. https://twitter.com/...
Tom Gara / @tomgara: Taking the internet as seriously as “real life” meant BF was way ahead of the curve on the biggest stories of the last decade. It's good that other news orgs, including the big winners of the last few years, eventually caught up—in large part by hiring many of BF's best people
John Paczkowski / @johnpaczkowski: What a ferocious travesty and a huge loss to journalism. https://twitter.com/...
John Paczkowski / @johnpaczkowski: 👇THIS👇 https://twitter.com/...
Ben Collins / @oneunderscore__: I will miss Buzzfeed News, in part because I'm not sure anywhere else that got a Pulitzer is going to publish stuff like this again. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
@radbrowndads: BuzzFeed News closure is so sad. Wonderfully talented people are losing their jobs, but managements inability to pivot is mind boggling. People are STILL connecting the brand with cheese quizzes instead of Pulitzers? They shut down audio when they had a lead on everyone? Shameful
Joshua Benton / @jbenton: a tip of the cap to whoever is manning the @buzzfeednews socials today https://twitter.com/...
Hans Mahncke / @hansmahncke: For all the schadenfreude, let's not forget that it was thanks to Buzzfeed that those of us with a functioning brain knew on Jan 10, 2017 that the Steele dossier was a bunch of obvious fabrications. https://twitter.com/...
Evette Dionne / @freeblackgirl: It always we're reducing the workforce and never the CEO is being nixed for having to continually lay off employees every other quarter and still not turning the profit shareholders desire. https://twitter.com/...
Laura Walubengo / @lwalubengo: Oh maaaan... https://twitter.com/...
Tom Gara / @tomgara: The consensus was correct, too. A lot of stuff BF News pioneered is now totally embedded in the fabric of the news industry - in particular, reporting on the internet as a real place that really matters, not a peculiar little oddity that exists outside the “real world” https://twitter.com/...
Mike Solana / @micsolana: kids today will probably not be able to comprehend this, but ten years ago it was close to consensus opinion that buzzfeed was the future of news
Ed Zitron / @edzitron: Buzzfeed News had legitimately great journalism and I just find this unimaginably stupid https://twitter.com/...
Estelle Tang / @waouwwaouw: not to make this about me but you can't say it's not iconic to have been laid off three times in a row
David Mack / @davidmackau: i'm obviously sad, but i'm immensely proud of the work i did here — even the stuff that seemed stupid! i had such freedom & it was indescribably fun! if anyone in this industry is hiring (lol) or wants me to write or edit, my email is davidmackau@gmail.com! https://twitter.com/...
Jaya Saxena / @jayasax: Once again, it isn't the CEO stepping down after admitting he made a bunch of mistakes. It isn't the people who got the company into an unsustainable place. It's the people who do the work the whole company is built on who get fucked. https://twitter.com/...
Caleb Hull / @calebjhull: Alternative headline: BuzzFeed, which published a fake dossier, is shutting down. https://twitter.com/...
Sapna Maheshwari / @sapna: this is so devastating. people told me i was committing “career suicide” when i left Bloomberg for BuzzFeed News in 2013. it ended up being the best decision - the place where I did some of my best work, made lifelong friends, and it helped me get to the NYT. https://twitter.com/...
Mark Seibel / @markseibel: So sorry to read this. There was a time BuzzFeed News was very competitive. https://twitter.com/...
Manisha Pande / @mnshap: BuzzFeed Shuts Down Its News Division - The New York Times In his memo, Mr. Peretti said... he was slow to accept that social-media platforms would not provide financial support required to make [news] profitable. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Valerie Bauman / @valeriereports: Really awful news for the industry. Buzzfeed's investigations - particularly on the phenomenon of long-term guardianships and conservatorships - were fantastic. Solid journalists who deserve to be employed. https://twitter.com/...
Christina Warren / @film_girl: Holy shit, Jonah just basically calls the investment in news “mistake,” if I'm reading this right. That's probably not objectively wrong, but man is it cold as hell. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D / @rvawonk: Wow. BuzzFeed is shutting down its news division because despite winning a Pulitzer Prize, it “never made money.” And this is why publicly-funded media matters. News is of immense public value, whether or not it's profitable. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@jason: The news business is going through a cataclysmic event... I've witnessed these three or four times as painful as they are the result is the opportunity to build new formats like websites, blogs, apps, email newsletters and podcasts To the folks impacted, consider doing a... https://twitter.com/...
@gregbensinger: Sad! BuzzFeed produced some fantastic, irreverent, probing journalism and filled a needed niche https://twitter.com/...
Ben Mullin / @benmullin: BuzzFeed News won a Pulitzer Prize and minted some of the great journalists of its generation, but never made any money. The media business is hard, pt. 1,248,8495 https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
April Wolfe / @awolfeful: “Our industry is hurting so we're going to use more AI and fire the unionized staff and that should fix things.” https://twitter.com/...
Ken Bensinger / @kenbensinger: Absolutely heartbroken that @BuzzFeedNews is going to be shut down. Truly a remarkable & unique place that produced hugely important journalism & many of the world's best reporters & editors. If you can, please help all the BFN journalists land a new gig. You won't regret it.
Marcus Gilmer / @marcusgilmer: God this is awful. The news division there had amazing journos doing amazing work https://twitter.com/...
Sarah Weinman / @sarahw: So depressing. BuzzFeed News did incredible work and was thoroughly run into the ground by its owners. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Nick Summers / @ncksmmrs: BuzzFeed News has had some killer scoops over the years. This is a real shame. https://twitter.com/...
Meech / @mediumsizemeech: Also—putting out a press release before you tell your employees they've been sacked is so vile https://twitter.com/...
Sophia Benoit / @1followernodad: Letting people go while mentioning how you're going to use more AI in the future is truly cruel. https://twitter.com/...
@nycsouthpaw: A lot of people worked very hard for very low pay to build an impactful news organization. And starting well before the pandemic or the fading spac market or whatever, BuzzFeed's corporate leadership has made a series of decisions that steadily disassembled it into nothing. https://twitter.com/...
Wesley Yang / @wesyang: All the VC-funded online news sites that were the spearhead of the Awokening have already slipped down the memoryhole; they performed their function, burned through hundreds of millions, and are now redundant in a fully Awokened world https://twitter.com/...
Harry McCracken / @harrymccracken: Terrible news about the part of the business that single-handedly redeemed the whole idea. https://twitter.com/...
Edmund Lee / @edmundlee: .@BuzzFeedNews was a two-time Pulitzer finalist ... RIP https://twitter.com/...
Staci D Kramer / @sdkstl: Speaking of rapid unscheduled disassembly ... https://twitter.com/...
Anna Borges / @annabroges: each day i am more and more disgusted by the state of this industry and the absolute useless fuck nozzles in charge of it https://twitter.com/...
@pfpicardi: Devastated for all the hard-working journalists and other talent (past and present) who made Buzzfeed News such an important, distinctive voice in our increasingly embattled media landscape. Your work is very much respected, and you deserved better than this. https://twitter.com/...
@mikeisaac: really awful. BF News produces great journalism and the industry is worse off without it still being around https://twitter.com/...
Brandy Zadrozny / @brandyzadrozny: What a huge loss. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
David Ruddock / @rdrv3: The silver lining? I'm confident a new wave of media layoffs will accelerate the trend toward specialized, independent outlets and creators building on a *paid access* (paywall) model. It's a model that rewards what people make, not whether readers can be convinced to click it.
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer: 🚨Major changes at @BuzzFeed, per memo from CEO Jonah Peretti — BuzzFeed cutting workforce by 15% — CRO Edgar Hernandez and COO Christian Baesler exiting company — @BuzzFeedNews shutting down — BuzzFeed stock whipsaws on news, now back down 11% https://twitter.com/...
Alexander Kaufman / @alexckaufman: BuzzFeed News funneled venture capital into something genuinely very useful and necessary: High-quality reporting freely available for anyone to read. It was the envy of every reporter who entered journalism in the chaotic 2010s and didn't work there. What a loss.
Olivia Solon / @oliviasolon: BuzzFeed News produced a lot of brilliant investigations and provided a training ground for many great reporters. Sad to hear it's shutting down.
Brandon Hardin / @hardin: restore my access so I can send a final tweet from the @BuzzFeedNews account you cowards!!!!!
Lucas Shaw / @lucas_shaw: “No jobs are being replaced by AI.” — @peretti
Jeff Jarvis / @jeffjarvis: I HATE to say this but I have said from the start that BuzzFeed News never had a sustaining business model. The cross-subsidy from BuzzFeed itself was generous but I knew that investors (whether VC or the public market now) would insist on getting rid of the drag on profits. https://twitter.com/...
Kathleen McLaughlin / @kemc: Was just talking with a fellow journalist about how it seems there are fewer and fewer news outlets all the time... https://twitter.com/...
Michael Selvidge / @selviano: Such a shame. At its best, BuzzFeed News was an absolute powerhouse overflowing with talent. They broke so many consequential stories. https://twitter.com/...
Lucas Shaw / @lucas_shaw: HuffPost will continue as a news organization. Story on this coming from @gerryfsmith
Paul McLeod / @pdmcleod: I don't even know what to say. BuzzFeed News at its height was an incredible place to work, brimming with great reporters and writers. The greatest newsroom culture I've ever been a part of.
Lucas Shaw / @lucas_shaw: This is confirmed. BuzzFeed is firing about 180 people and shutting down BuzzFeed News. The company's COO and CRO are both leaving. https://twitter.com/...
Andrew Kaczynski / @kfile: As an alumni, this is so sad to see. BuzzFeed News did some great reporting. A scam PAC operator is being sentenced today after pleading guilty after we first exposed his scam at BF News in 2016 in a story. https://twitter.com/...
Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy: MORE: BuzzFeed boss @peretti just sent out a note to staff, announcing the shuttering of BuzzFeed News is part of layoffs where 15% of staffers are being cut across the company. Peretti says, “For BuzzFeed News, we have begun discussions with the News Guild about these actions.”
Abraham Gutman / @abgutman: Holy...this is terrible news. My heart with all the amazing journalists who are impacted. What a loss. https://twitter.com/...
Davey Alba / @daveyalba: what the actual fuck https://twitter.com/...
Joe Bernstein / @bernstein: This was a great newsroom, which produced great stories and nurtured great talent. https://twitter.com/...
Fortesa Latifi / @fortesalatifi: this is terrible. media is a heartbreaking business https://twitter.com/...
Kate Aurthur / @kateaurthur: These screenshots are completely out of order, but add up to completely devastating news. https://twitter.com/...
Jon Christian / @jon_christian: wild that Peretti doubles down on AI in the same memo where he kills the award-winning BuzzFeed News https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Russ Bengtson / @russbengtson: “more agile and focused business organization” regarding a media property just gave me PTSD, I need to go take a walk https://twitter.com/...
Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy: “HuffPost and BuzzFeed Dot Com have signaled that they will open a number of select roles for members of BuzzFeed News,” @peretti says. “Moving forward, we will have a single news brand in HuffPost, which is profitable, with a loyal direct front page audience.”
Christina Warren / @film_girl: Holy shit this is awful. https://twitter.com/...
Christina Warren / @film_girl@mastodon.social: #BuzzFeed News mattered. I worked for one of BuzzFeed's top competitors in the peak era and competing with them was so tough because they raised all this money (Mashable didn't raise until 2014 …
Christina Warren / @film_girl@mastodon.social: Like, watching the decline of digital media, a thing I gave so much of my life to, is just depressing. I used to say to people at Mashable (and this was very early, maybe 2010 when I first said this) that we had to become the New York Times before the Times became us. …
Christina Warren / @film_girl@mastodon.social: Fun fact: I had drinks with Jon and Jonah (CEO and then COO of BuzzFeed) in January or Feb of 2011 in the East Village b/c they wanted to see if Mashable would be willing to partner with BuzzFeed. …
Kevin Beaumont / @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social: Bummer about Buzzfeed News closing. I know people think of Buzzfeed in a certain way, but they actually evolved into a place that supports some good journalists.. You just know all these outlets are going to end up being AI bots churning out content, and that saddens me.
Casey Newton / @caseynewton@mastodon.social: RIP BuzzFeed News :(
Nikki Main / Gizmodo: BuzzFeed News Is Shutting Down
Isaac Schorr / Mediaite: JUST IN: BuzzFeed News to Shut Down
Kevin Collier / @kevincollier@mastodon.social: Unbelievable bummer that BuzzFeed News is closing. I spent fewer than 2 years there but it was pivotal for me. The vast majority of people I befriended and most admired there have since moved on, but still, what a loss and and end of an era.
Patrick Howell O'Neill / @howelloneill@infosec.exchange: BuzzFeed News produced a ton of great journalism over the years. For a long time, a good litmus test was to see if someone was dismissive of BF News reporting just because of the content site's silly listicles. …
Todd Spangler / Variety: BuzzFeed News Is Shutting Down, Company Laying Off 180 Staffers
Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
BuzzFeed CRO Edgar Hernandez and COO Christian Baesler are leaving as part of the company's cuts, following advertisers pulling back; BZFD closes down 19.71%
Discussion:
Lucia Moses / Insider: BuzzFeed is shutting down its news arm and laying off 15% of staff as CEO Jonah Peretti concedes mistakes and some insiders complain of ‘brutal’ mismanagement
Angela Fu / @angelanfu: For decades, The Buffalo News enjoyed the protection that came from being Warren Buffett's only daily, avoiding the worst of the industry's decline. That changed under Lee Enterprises. https://www.poynter.org/...
Annie Aguiar / Poynter: You read our story about The Buffalo News and Lee Enterprises, now join the conversation
Tom Gara / @tomgara: “Drudge and Huffington Post, the old portals that propped up the internet of the mid-aughts, will outlive the social media age, along with, of all things, Yahoo!” https://www.semafor.com/...
Matthew Foldi / @matthewfoldi: How it started /// How it's going https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Reuters Institute:
A roundup of highlights from the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, on reporting in exile, investigative journalism, staff diversity, and AI — Here are a few highlights from the festival on topics such as press freedom, investigative journalism, climate coverage and AI
RELATED:
Alastair Reid / @ajreid:
[Thread] At the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, journalists debate the shifting value of social platforms including Twitter and Facebook — Outrageous setting for this powerhouse panel here at #ijf23 with @CharlieBeckett @emilybell @mathewi and @mitrakalita. What now for journalism as the platforms move on? https://twitter.com/...
Discussion:
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: Facebook, sure, is a lobbying organisation now, says @mitrakalita, but it was set up to rank women. Thinking that platform cares about a news ecosystem was always a non starter #ijf23
S. Mitra Kalita / @mitrakalita: Tis true. I hung on because it's the biggest audience I have, I derive value and I feared losing two-factor after I was hacked earlier this year. But eyes wide open ... https://twitter.com/...
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: Q from the floor: Should platforms be publicly owned? That opens the door to questions around authoritarianism and sustainability, says @CharlieBeckett. It's never going to happen in America, days @emilybell #ij23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: What about other platforms? Mastodon is great but it's predominantly white nerds, says @emilybell, and although it's improving it doesn't do what Twitter does in being a centralised platform where everyone is together #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: We looked at platforms as referral traffic rather than what we were actually doing on there, says @mitrakalita, which is a fundamental failure. Very good point: she worries about newsrooms serving platforms rather than serving the people on them #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: “Journalism in the face of American capitalism is like a marshmallow in the face of a dragon” says @emilybell #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: But Elon coming in is like a new developer coming to town, tearing down the buildings and saying “I don't care if that's where you met your friends, it's mine now” #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: So what about Facebook? News made up something like 3% of traffic, says @CharlieBeckett, and they stopped funding it. The pretence of caring about news and journalism is gone #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: But in some non-Western countries, where there are real government pressures on media outlets, Twitter can be vital for independent journalists in doing their job and telling their truth says @emilybell #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: There's a danger for journalists of thinking Twitter is the real world, says @CharlieBeckett, and we should not fall into the facade of disproportionality that it can create #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: The more platforms we have, the better says @CharlieBeckett. And rethinking our relationships with them is only a good thing. #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: Twitter is now “a train wreck but where every car is a dumpster and they're all on fire. And it's crashing” is a helluva way to kick things off from @mathewi #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: There are people about both companies who care about news, but at the top it is about stopping regulation, says @emilybell, regulation which is intended to pass money from one part of the information ecosystem to another #ijf23
Hsiuwen Liu / Columbia Journalism Review:
Journalists in Hong Kong, often veterans who had worked at closed outlets like Apple Daily, keep producing independent media despite strict government rules — Hong Kong Court News, an online outlet that debuted at the start of the year, operates out of a rented coworking space in Wong Chuk Hang …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Hasbro is in talks with Entertainment One founder Darren Throop to sell most of the film and TV studio's assets back to him, backed by PE firm CVC — Hasbro Inc. is in talks with Entertainment One founder Darren Throop to sell most of the film and TV studio's assets back to him, according to people familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
How business journalists are building their audiences via LinkedIn, which is using newsletters and curation to engage users and writers on the social network — Linkedin has one of the biggest business newsrooms in the world, with more than 250 editors following a major expansion in the past year.
Discussion:
Dougal Shaw / @dougalshawbbc: I shared my thoughts about @LinkedIn as a tool for journalists with @CharlotteTobitt for this piece in @pressgazette. If you want to subscribe to my CEO Secrets newsletter, find me on LinkedIn. @LinkedInUK https://pressgazette.co.uk/...
Matt Navarra / @mattnavarra: Why business journalists love Linkedin and Linkedin loves them back FT-backed website Sifted's Google Analytics data shows Linkedin “drives a lot more traffic than Twitter”. https://pressgazette.co.uk/...
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Bloomberg Media announces six new shows, focusing on documentary or interview formats, for Q2 2023, and hires Cassie Thornton as its head of IP partnerships — The new head of IP, Cassie Thornton, will be tasked with striking licensing deals to bring Bloomberg's journalism to other platforms.
Discussion:
@thestalwart, @lauren_jellis, @rajakorman, Bloomberg Media, Bloomberg Media and Talking Biz News
Discussion:
Joe Weisenthal / @thestalwart: A little news in The Hollywood Reporter https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Lauren Ellis / @lauren_jellis: New show w/ @emilychangtv coming soon! https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ ...
Todd Shields / Bloomberg Law:
A US appeals court declines to force the FCC to speed up its decision to approve or deny Standard General's proposed $5.4B acquisition of TV broadcaster Tegna — Share To: — A court declined to speed regulatory consideration of Standard General LP's proposed purchase of TV broadcaster Tegna Inc. …
Discussion:
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