BuzzFeed Information is shutting down as a part of companywide layoffs : NPR

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The web site BuzzFeed is shutting down its Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom. The corporate says 15% of BuzzFeed’s workforce, or about 180 staff, might be laid off. We known as Ben Smith to listen to extra about this. He is the previous editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed Information. Good morning, Ben.

BEN SMITH: Hello, Michel.

MARTIN: So that you had been the founding editor of BuzzFeed Information. You labored there for nearly 10 years. How had been you receiving this, Unhappy, mad, stunned?

SMITH: You realize, I imply, I feel it is actually unhappy. I am actually unhappy about it. I do know quite a lot of my colleagues are, I feel, you recognize, and I would not say completely stunned. It has been – you recognize, BuzzFeed and BuzzFeed Information, you recognize, we got here up as Fb and Twitter and social media rose and have become this thrilling new factor the place you possibly can – you recognize, the place you possibly can distribute tales to hundreds of thousands of individuals. And, you recognize, I feel as shoppers, as all people, bought a bit sick of consuming information by way of Fb, BuzzFeed particularly, which had most likely been – we would most likely been higher than anyone else at getting you these hyperlinks on Fb, you recognize, actually struggled to proceed to carry onto this big viewers.

MARTIN: So what do you assume led to this? May you be extra particular concerning the particular components?

SMITH: Yeah. Yeah. I feel, you recognize, individuals – fewer persons are on Fb and Twitter than was once. And actually, notably across the 2016 election, I feel – you recognize, after we began out, there was this sense of, wow, is not it neat to get, you recognize, onerous information tales blended up with humorous quizzes, blended up with child Twitter photos on Fb? What sort of, like, a novel, fascinating technique to get your media. And I feel, come the 2016 election, that began to really feel really extremely poisonous. And lots of people hated it. And the social media firms, Fb particularly, reacted to that by attempting to get away from information. And for those who have a look at your Fb feed as we speak, for those who’re nonetheless on Fb, which lots of people usually are not, you will see so much much less information. And – yeah, and so for BuzzFeed and for different firms that rose with these social platforms, it has been a fairly robust few years.

MARTIN: So we’re in a second the place each conventional and digital information shops are shedding staff due to monetary points, together with this one, together with NPR – Vox, Insider, The Washington Submit. Simply to get your take right here, what do you assume this says?

SMITH: You realize, I feel we’re in a second of a giant change within the information enterprise. I feel there was a type of web information that rose, you recognize, actually, within the early 2000s. I simply kind of spent a pair years writing a e-book about this. And you may actually really feel that there was this period that started with web sites like Gawker and Huffington Submit and BuzzFeed within the early 2000s and – you recognize, and formed quite a lot of what all of us kind of consider as information and media now. I feel, you recognize, from The New York Instances to NPR, individuals took quite a lot of these classes about find out how to use the web. And now the web is altering so much. Persons are watching brief movies as a substitute of occurring social networks. They’re consuming so much in electronic mail. And they are going to occasions. I imply, it is kind of a special information world. And so I feel quite a lot of firms are having to regulate.

MARTIN: And what do you assume which means? And, I assume, how does that land with you? I imply, you’re nonetheless with a media firm. You are with a gaggle known as Semafor. Does this – do you assume that this equally properly serves the general public, and if not, what would possibly?

SMITH: You realize, I do not assume lots of people assume that the social media period did serve the general public very properly. I imply, I feel all of us wound up feeling overwhelmed, feeling that information was being fed to us by way of algorithms and – you recognize, and kind of pandered to in sure methods. And so, I imply, you recognize, I can not predict if the subsequent factor might be higher. However I do assume what quite a lot of us in media are excited about is, how will we attain – you recognize, how will we kind of have what looks like a extra human, extra direct dialog, one thing that’s much less mediated, much less piped by way of these massive digital pipes?

MARTIN: And maybe much less vulnerable to manipulation. So OK, properly, let’s discuss extra. You bought a e-book popping out. Ben Smith is a former editor-in-chief for BuzzFeed Information. He is bought a forthcoming e-book, “Site visitors.” It is concerning the historical past of digital media. Ben Smith, thanks a lot for speaking to us.

SMITH: Thanks, Michel.

Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content might not be in its closing type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could differ. The authoritative document of NPR’s programming is the audio document.