I like how they claim that the writers won't have to write about the objects that BuzzFeed is selling. If you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you-- and you can buy it right here by clicking on this link.
I agree with you that there was really great work done at BuzzFeed News and find people's dismissiveness to be based on unfamiliarity with a lot of what they've done.
I use the past tense only because of the mass layoffs and other cuts they've had.
Actual question. Two or three years ago your comment verbatim would've been heavily upvoted here. I've seen it posted countless times. Nowadays it's grey. How times change.
The same way you maintain journalistic integrity when you are collecting money from advertisers- you erect a firewall between the journalists and the sales department. I see no reason why this would be any less effective when selling products directly versus selling advertising to sell products.
I wonder if this is an adjacent phenomenon to the financialization of everything- the "moativation" of everything? To survive as a business, you need to be everything to everyone, or at least explore as many tenuously-connected paths to monetization.
The lesson here is that the power lies with those who who have relationships with consumers. That distribution channel is quite possibly the single most valuable asset one can possess today. Kylie Jenner is ridiculously rich not because she has amazing products (I mean I don't know much about cosmetics but I can't believe they're 10x better than the next thing out there), but rather because she has direct access to a large audience and understood what that audience would be willing to buy.
This is really just a form of vertical integration/cutting out the middleman. Why sell ad space to companies who will use it to sell goods to consumers when you can instead just sell goods directly to those consumers?
The means of production used to be the most important thing - now it's the means of distribution.
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[ 0.25 ms ] story [ 36.0 ms ] threadbuzfeed news: high quality journalism
just stick to the right side and you should be fine.
I use the past tense only because of the mass layoffs and other cuts they've had.
Actual question. Two or three years ago your comment verbatim would've been heavily upvoted here. I've seen it posted countless times. Nowadays it's grey. How times change.
This is really just a form of vertical integration/cutting out the middleman. Why sell ad space to companies who will use it to sell goods to consumers when you can instead just sell goods directly to those consumers?
The means of production used to be the most important thing - now it's the means of distribution.