The Boston Post started as a joke of a newspaper that did publicity stunts to get viewers. They took the money they made from it, hired a bunch of good investigative journalists, and eventually exposed Charles Ponzi. They went on to be a respected newspaper.

Seems like Buzzfeed is doing the same thing.

I was stunned this is BF. Great long form profile. I was wondering if maybe the content is shared / re-run under some other brand as well or if BF can afford to do this in depth stuff itself.

I can't remember where I heard this, but I think the whole listicle thing generating a profit so that they could produce actually good journalism was always the plan.

I mean, I sometimes hear from their foreign correspondents on NPR or podcasts I'm interested in. They do have some great journalists on staff.

As long as the "good" journalism doesn't offend any of their listicle sponsors, of course

Over the next five years, they'll use this sense of surprising quality to slide native or embedded or whatever they call it advertising right past your radar.

IMHO, it would be fair to criticize this piece for poor editing. The writing feels a bit rough in places. There are sentences and paragraphs which can be considerably abbreviated to be more readable. Further, the article's flow is a bit off. Overall great narrative, though.

Actually, they have a Serious news section which it's pretty good (all things considered). It's been a while since they've added it.

Agreed, BuzzFeed has produced some great articles of late.