Austin – Jonah Peretti says the explosive growth of his
BuzzFeed platform owes to capitalizing on what he calls the “Bored at Work” Network.
BuzzFeed has 40 million unique visitors a month, so the graduate of MIT’s famed
Media Lab has substantial credibility on the subject of growth.
The BuzzFeed CEO & Founder told a SXSW audience here
that more people around the world are getting news content from each other at
work than from all the traditional television networks combined. Of course, as
the driving force behind a platform made famous by photos of cute basset hounds
and other Ed-Murrow-is-turning-in-his-grave nonsense, Peretti’s definition of
news could be called flexible. Still, he is unequivocally correct in asserting
that BuzzFeed and similar digital platforms have forever changed the way we view
journalism. Thus the title of his session, “The Big Power Shift in Media.”
Peretti has his sights set on the “Bored in Line”
Network, which is now relevant because of the growing sophistication of mobile
devices. “Social and mobile have merged,” he told the gathering, “and mobile no
longer stops things because somebody says, ‘I can’t do that now because I’m on
my Blackberry.’” Indeed, he says that mobile comprises 40 percent of BuzzzFeed
traffic.
He is guiding BuzzFeed’s evolution from what David
Letterman calls “stupid pet tricks” to something far more substantive – and
complex. BuzzzFeed has hired serious
political journalists and is breaking hard news. He says his organization was the
first to break news of President Obama’s secret trip to Afghanistan in 2012, if
you remember that controversy. Indeed,
BuzzFeed now has an approved White House correspondent traveling with the “Inside
the Beltway” crowd.
Peretti remains unabashedly committed to delivering the
fun stuff, too. And you know what, he should. He used a Paris Café analog to
make his case, and it worked for me. “Publishing is a Paris Café today where
you can read Sartre, check out business news in Le Monde, flirt, and pet the
dog under the table.” His point, though a bit overripe, was that a general news
and feature platform today needs to appeal to all aspects of life and living. Hey,
as I thought about it, haven’t the world’s great newspapers long earned
Pulitzer Prizes for serious journalism while trafficking in gossip, astrology,
comic strips and photos of babies and pets? “Be human,” Peretti said. Ok, I’m
sold.
Twitter @jessicamcwade