Jonah Peretti’s career to date has been defined by constant reinvention. As the founder and CEO of BuzzfeedPeretti has been at the forefront of digital media for almost two decades, navigating the changes as the startup once small became, into a point, in a multimedia power.
But as the company ages, a question persists: Does Peretti’s implacable impulse for innovation have done it too much entrepreneur to bring Buzzfeed to long -term stability?
“The good thing about this field,” Peretti reflects, “are you something? [different] all the time. They have not passed 20 years of work. 20 years have passed to administer a startup, then manage a hyperscaling business and then discover how to make the company public. . And now the explosion in the generative AI. There is always something to maintain fresh and new work. “
Peretti’s ability to adapt and stay ahead of the curve has been a distinctive seal of Buzzfeed’s success. Years ago, Buzzfeed enjoyed an almost unique success in its strange ability to create shared media. (A video segment, focused on why Disney’s princes would make “terrible boyfriends”, has accumulated 77 million visits over the years).
Today, the Buzzfeed approach is at AI, including AI and others Content generated by AI. It is also investing some of its resources in a developing product called BF Island, a social network that aims to merge AI with the creation of content to “spread joy and allow a playful creative expression.” Then he told Axios last month, anyway.
Peretti routinely discusses the next companies of the company with the mediaEven when they are still in their childhood. When asked why, he tells britcommerce: “The idea of talking about things he is working on is that the product improves ..
This business impulse has fed a large part of Buzzfeed’s most emblematic projects. The company was a pioneer in viral competitions and lyticles, then turned more serious journalism with Buzzfeed news. But not all of these changes have been worth it. In particular, despite its early success, Buzzfeed News was closed In 2023, leaving questions about whether the company should have hit a clear vision instead of jumping with each other.
Buzzfeed’s shareholders could be reflecting the same after the roller mountain trip in which they have been. Buzzfeed was made public through a special purpose vehicle in 2021, and as part of the transaction, he acquired a media company, complex networks, for $ 300 million in cash and shares. Today, Buzzfeed still publicly quotes, but does not own that business; He sold it approximately $ 108 million last year. More recently, Buzzfeed sold another asset of that complex network agreement, we first festified, in a $ 82.5 million Treatment of all things in cash. (Peretti explains of both sales: “They are not so much technological businesses. They are more of heavy production and talent”).
The Buzzfeed shares, with a price of $ 10 initially, now quotes $ 2.20 per share.
This is where the tension is located. Peretti’s hug of constant reinvention is surprising, but also means that the company’s strategy has often felt as a series of experiments instead of a long -term cohesive plan. Experiments also have a cost. Peretti says that BF Island is a bet of $ 10 million for now that it is not expected to generate income this year. He adds that Buzzfeed’s “main business” is profitable.
It is a fair question if Buzzfeed would be better attended by a unique and consistent vision for the future, such as the New York Times has managed to achieve, instead of betting on a new idea after another.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to know the answer. The media industry has long favored stability, but Peretti is not wrong to believe that the current generative wave is revolutionizing how people create and share content. In addition, as excited as it sounds about the possibilities, Peretti sounds clear with the risks.
“The important thing is that Buzzfeed has given us a lot of experience with new formats,” he says. “We have received a lot of entry from people who have ideas and want to collaborate with us.”
In addition, he adds to Peretti, who is now accustomed to balance growth with financial pressures: “I think that the deepest understanding of the next level is that only doing the same thing again and again and trying to grind it is actually a more risky strategy than innovating, experiencing, trying new things, maintaining an open mind and trying to discover new approaches or new ways of winning in a really difficult market.”
You can hear much more of our interview with Peretti in an upcoming episode of Strictlyvc Download; New episodes fall every Tuesday.