The career of Jonah Peretti so far has been determined by constant reinvention. As the founder and CEO of BuzzfeedPeretti has been at the forefront of digital media for almost two decades and navigated changes, while the once small startup turned into a multimedia force pATER at some point.
But as the company gets older, a question lingers: Has Peretti’s ruthless urge for innovation made it entertaining to lead BuzzFeed to long -term stability?
“The nice thing about this field,” Memuts Peretti, “are you something [different] all the time. It has not been 20 years of one job. It has been a startup for 20 years and then manage a hyperscaling company and then find out how the company can become public. . . And now the explosion in generative AI. There is always something to keep the work fresh and new. “
The ability of Peretti to adjust and stay ahead has been a characteristic of the success of BuzzFeed. Years ago, Buzzfeed enjoyed almost single success in the creepy ability to create divisible media. (One video segment, aimed at why Disney Princes would make ‘terrible friends’, has viewed 77 million times over the years.)
Nowadays Buzzfeed’s Focus is on AI, including AI quizzes and others AI-generated content. It also pours part of his resources into a product in the development called BF Island, a social network that wants to merge AI with making content to “spread joy and make playful creative expression possible.” So he told Axios at least last month.
Peretti routinely discusses the coming companies of the company with the mediaEven if they are still in its infancy. Asked why, he says Techcrunch: “The idea of talking about things you are working on is that you make the product better .. If you talk about it, it is not only with your team, but with external people who may want to work together. If there is a new computer platform, there is an explosion of creativity. Those are the times when you can build something new.”
This entrepreneurial drive has fueled many of the most iconic projects from BuzzFeed. The company pioneered viral quizzes and frame sticks and then turned to more serious journalism with Buzzfeed News. But not all these shifts have paid off. Especially, despite the early success, Buzzfeed News was Closed In 2023, asking questions about whether the company should have adhered to one clear vision instead of jumping in between.
The shareholders of BuzzFeed may think the same after the roller coaster ride they have been. Buzzfeed went publicly through a special vehicle in 2021, and as part of the transaction it acquired a media company, complex networks, for $ 300 million in cash and shares. Nowadays Buzzfeed still acts publicly, but it does not own that company; It sold it for about $ 108 million Last year. More recently, Buzzfeed sold another one more active in that complex networking deal – first we parties – in a separate $ 82.5 million All-cash deal. (Peretti explains both sales, “they are not so much technical companies. They are more production and talent.”)
The Buzzfeed shares, initially priced at $ 10, now trades $ 2.20 per share.
This is where the tension is. Peretti’s embrace of constant reinvention is striking, but it also means that the strategy of the company has often felt as a series of experiments instead of a coherent long -term plan. The experiments are also costs. Peretti says that BF Island is a gamble of $ 10 million for the time being that is not expected to yield income this year. He adds that Buzzfeed’s “core activity” is profitable.
It is a fair question whether BuzzFeed would be better served by a unique, consistent vision for the future – as the New York Times has succeeded in betting on one new idea after the other.
Unfortunately it is difficult to know the answer. The media industry has long prefer stability, but Peretti is not wrong to believe that the current Gulf of Generative AI will trigger a revolution in how people create and share content. Also, as excited as he sounds about the possibilities, Peretti sounds clear about the risks.
“The big thing is that Buzzfeed has given us a lot of experience with new formats,” he says. “We have received many incoming people from people who have ideas and want to work with us.”
In addition, Perschti adds, which is now used to growth with financial pressure: “I think the deeper understanding of the next level is that do the same and do the same again and try to grind it, actually a more risky strategy than innovating, trying new things, trying new things, retaining an open mind and finding new approaches or winning new ways.”
You can hear a lot more from our interview with Peretti in a coming episode of StrictlyVC Download; New episodes fall every Tuesday.