They've been doing significant, important stories for at least the last 2 years, after having built up what is now maybe one of the largest investigative teams with several Pulitzer winners:

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/04/8543804/...

At some point, HN removed the ban against the domain, and so BuzzFeed stories have been appearing with some frequency:

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=buzzfeed.com

Buried underneath the ghastly clickbait, they've actually got some pretty decent journalism and long-form articles. The good stuff's hard to sort from the crap, unfortunately.

(A while back there was an exemplary piece of in-depth analysis on some space phenomenon. I've just spent a good 20 minutes trying to find it, so I could post it as an example, and have failed.)

It's more likely than you'd think.

Buzzfeed has a division composed of regular journalists.

Not to mention an article that isn't total crap!? It is pleasantly surprising to read an article from buzzfeed and have it not be dredged up sludge of the internet.