BuzzFeed: The New Newsroom…Is It the Future?

February 25, 2014 – The Shorenstein Center welcomed Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, to share his insights on news models, and what works in today's media ecosystem. Smith emphasized the value of shared content over number of clicks, and how crucial editors are in any newsroom. Investigative reporting is alive and well on the Internet, he added.
Ben Smith and Nicco Mele
Ben Smith and Nicco Mele

February 25, 2014 – Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, shared his insights on news models, and what works in today’s media ecosystem. He said that Twitter has changed the structure of news distribution. Instead of news sites doing their own aggregation of content and tweaking SEO to index their sites and increase traffic, “Twitter is better at that.” Now, he said, sites no longer fight to get readers on to their front page because the front page is becoming more and more irrelevant. He believes traditional journalistic values can be maintained, even if the business models change.

Listen to the audio on SoundCloud.

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Article and photo by Janell Sims, Shorenstein Center.