BuzzFeed: How Profiting From Political Movements Led To Their Collapse (Documentary)

Special Thanks to Guest Interviews:
Alastair Bostwick @Bostwiki
Caleb Chin
Anonymous Former BuzzFeed Employee

Buzzfeed. With over 20 million subscribers and a wheelhouse of the internet’s most talented creators, it is simply astounding that a media company can go from having a huge presence online to seemingly insignificant overnight. Whether you hate or love them, there is no denying that Buzzfeed was a media juggernaut around 2016 producing some of the most viral videos and getting hordes of users to take their quizzes. Gaining attention from the 20 something crowd Buzzfeed was a force to be reckoned with. But with such a stronghold on the online community and their numbers reinforcing that, how in the world did this massive enterprise lose their audience?

CREW
Video by Donna
Ben Smith Voice Over: @JoshEssex
Production Crew Marygold and Jewel Martinez

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CAMERA GEAR (Affiliate)

LENSES

AUDIO

Main Sources:

[pisceanbeauty]

Those “fun” offices in hindsight seem like nightmare places to work. Mandated fun, not so fun.

[chosoistryinghisbest]

i still think it's a little crazy that there's a whole generation of content creators that would not exist had they not worked at buzzfeed. like safiya and tyler, try guys, shane & ryan, worth it, quinta, etc. like what? especially seeing quinta go beyond buzzfeed & youtube, and even direct her own show on national television.

[trash_cats_tv]

as a former unsolved producer, making videos for an audience that only wanted ryan and shane content was tough on our entire team : / wish things were done differently. loved this and your channel!

[Mitch_Fisherman]

Ryan and Shane for the fucking win!!!! No one cared about buzzfeed, they were so smart to branch off and do their own shit

[Landminetype]

I remember buzzfeed always felt surface level to me, some of their videos seemed to encapsulate 'girlboss feminism' and when I found youtube channels that were also left leaning while going more in depth in the ideas they expressed i essentially abandoned buzzfeed and I havent watched them since

[letzsnuggzz]

The best thing that has come out of Buzzfeed is Quinta Brunson. She was woefully under appreciated while she was there. Thankfully the larger entertainment industry is valuing her talents.

[amymuscarello]

That anecdote about Keith complaining behind the chew dude's back was interesting, especially when you also consider the anecdote that involved Ned basically being a drunken pig to a couple of fans and Keith pretty much shrugging it off. I think the story ended with Keith saying something like, "Yeah, Ned does that."

[rml]

I think it’s also very telling looking at the type of content the creators who left now make. Like Safiya is making content that is COMPLETELY her own, also interesting that she seemed to leave before the performative Ladylike era started. Also telling (as someone who loved Ladylike) that the content that had the most positivity was the Kristen and Jen stuff and they still make extremely wholesome and enjoyable content.

It’s just interesting to see how these creators have been able to make their own content once the left buzzfeed.

Even for the Try Guys, who I’m also a fan of, their content has changed drastically in my opinion, it’s less “trying stuff” and more actually doing things if that makes sense (their podcast also got more candid after Ned left which is telling as well)

[drunkgeek]

Now, Jubilee and Cut has received the same status like Buzzfeed did in 2010s. Wonder they'll have the same downfall in the next few years.

[lalailm]

Will’s story had my jaw on the floor. I wish that whoever tried to screw him out of Buzzfeed got the karma they deserved.
Its crazy to think that the person was probably close enough to him…

[vdemarzo]

“Someone informed me that ‘spirit animal’ is an insensitive term so I became a white supremacist” If that’s all it took, he was already a white supremacist.

[ViolaVines]

I feel like buzzfeeds shallow takes and liberal aesthetics was fun/entertaining when I was a young college kid who also had shallow understandings of politics simply from age/lack of knowledge/experience. However, inevitably I grew up and the content was no longer enjoyable. I feel like many of their millennial audience just grew up as well.

[VultureSkins]

39:00 also, nobody at buzzfeed “pushed” this dude to right-leaning politics. He is fully responsible for his own actions and choices. Not a soul “made” him right-leaning, and to assert the opposite is to resolve him of responsibility and autonomy.

[alexdh]

my favorite fun fact about the rejection hotline is that chelsea peretti, jonah peretti's sister, wrote a bunch of the voicemails as an early way to start her comedy writing

[bcarefulwhatuwishfor]

I find it funny that she keeps referring to Buzzfeed as being authentic but my experience was that Buzzfeed was always seen as formulaic trash, completely devoid of authenticity, and synonymous with the concept of clickbait. I mean this as being my experience from around 2012/13. And I feel like that was the general consensus on the internet the entire time. I don't think I've ever heard Buzzfeed described as authentic before in my life.

[puppyyuppy]

okay but being called out for cultural appropriation doesn't make people vote for trump. mans did that himself with his own foolishness

[Pallised]

something tells me that someone telling him to not say he had a “spirit animal” didn’t turn him into a white supremacist

[harrypotterattic]

Wow... I was a middle schooler in 2012 and idolized Buzzfeed's work culture. Sooo glad that this was made, I was always curious as to why so many people made 'why I left Buzzfeed' videos when they could never say much about the situation. This was so interesting to learn more about after so many years and rocketed me back to gathering around the family computer with my friends so that we could take Buzzfeed quizzes haha.

[coolgirl]

Buzzfeed really thought they could run with just their name but in reality, it wasn't the name "buzzfeed" that fans were attached to, it was the people behind that name, the ones who made it known. I remember there was a time where I'd binge watch so much buzzfeed videos that I didn't even realize hours had passed. The "cast" were the ones that made it entertaining and interesting to watch. It was the days of Try Guys, Ladylike, Unsolved, Ashley, Andrew, Gabbie, Quinta, Kelsey, Jen, Michelle, and so many more during that era that made Buzzfeed big. As soon as they started leaving, the videos just weren't the same and became less and less watchable. It wasn't that the newer people weren't good, its just wasn't the Buzzfeed we grew attached to.

[jvever]

Blaming Buzzfeed that Baked Alaska fell into the alt-right pipeline is a weird fucking take considering he's a grown ass man and probably already had those views before he was even hired into the company. He only got more vocal once he didn't have to keep it quiet after he quit. He went and got himself a Trump tattoo and participated in the Jan 6th riots, thats ALL on him.