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Comment by instagraham | Hacker News Reader

They did some fantastic journalism. Completely changed my view of Buzzfeed.

Buzzfeed in general gets flak but to people in the industry, it was quite clear that they:

1 - Understood the medium 2 - For a brief while, nailed the art of messaging within it

Buzzfeed News never understood the medium. They couldn't support themselves. It turns out chasing social media and search clicks for free ad-supported journalism is not a great business model.

The freemium models of the New York Times and Washington Post are the ones that are cleaning up. You get a few free ad-supported articles a month to pique your interest, and if you are really into it, you need to pay a subscription. But Buzzfeed never had a brand people would pay for.

Buzzfeed, the non-news part, certainly knows how to produce cheap content, which makes it easier to ad support. They also do sponsored content.

But I'd hesitate to say that Buzzfeed understood the medium. They knew how to game traffic. They didn't know how to make money.

A lot of news outlets chased clicks. They thought they understood the medium. Making money and supporting yourself is the ultimate understanding the medium. Turns out The Gray Lady understands it the best.

> It turns out chasing social media and search clicks for free ad-supported journalism is not a great business model.

And it's an even worse business model if you rely on social media for your business model and one day Twitter (or any other platform eventually) decides that if you're going to make money sharecropping in their fields, you need to start turning over revenue to the landlord in the shape of checkmark payola for reach and gatekeeping fees for access to the API.

It's the classic platform enshittification end-game: Social media embraced companies like Buzzfeed for providing the content that they used to build critical mass, then turned around and viewed them as ATMs to be plundered. Same story as app developers in walled gardens.

Twitter never drove any traffic to news media. Facebook did, but Twitter was just where the journalists themselves hung out and sometimes collected stories.

I'm not sure that that should insulate them from criticism? In fact I think much of the criticism towards Buzzfeed is precisely around how good they were at the medium, and what they used that medium for/what that medium could be used for at all (to take the McLuhan angle). To put it more obnoxiously and splashily, Goebbels was also a master of his medium.

And it's a shame Buzzfeed news needed that substrate to survive on.

They are the ones who published and relentlessly pushed the now-debunked Steele Dossier, aka 'Pee Tape". They went out of their way to spread misinformation and create political divisions for clicks at every opportunity. RIP Buzfeed but you won't be missed.

The concept of debunking doesn't apply here, outside of the right-wing media bubble. The author estimated that 75% of the information was likely accurate. Is that what you think was debunked?

But none of it was accurate. A true fact-finding organization never assumes truth but they dig into finding it.

Do you know which organization you're referring to? I suggest you read the reporting from the major outlets at the time, it's purely factual information about the dossier.

Why don't you ask Erik Wemple of the Washington Post? He's had a lot to say about the bogusness of the so-called dossier, and the media (including his own newspaper) that publicized it far and wide. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/media-steele-dossier...>

what is an example?

They did a tell-all for a startup I was working at years ago and it was all accurate based on what I saw on the inside.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jimderogatis/parents-to...

Jim DeRogatis is the person most singly responsible for bringing justice to R Kelly.

"After BuzzFeed News and ICIJ published a joint investigation, officials across the globe began taking action to finally thwart illicit financial activity and the criminals who move money through Western banks." - https://www.buzzfeednews.com/fincen-files

"Insurance Companies Are Paying Cops To Investigate Their Own Customers" - https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kendalltaggart/insuranc...

"A Middle East Monarchy Hired American Ex-Soldiers To Kill Its Political Enemies. This Could Be The Future Of War." - https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/aramroston/mercenaries-...

"Secret NYPD Files: Officers Who Lie And Brutally Beat People Can Keep Their Jobs" - https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kendalltaggart/secret-n...

"A Chicago Cop Is Accused Of Framing 51 People For Murder. Now, The Fight For Justice." - https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/melissasegura/detective...

"WWF Funds Guards Who Have Tortured And Killed People" - https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tomwarren/wwf-world-wid...

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