The career of Jonah Peretti to date has been defined by constant reinvention. As a founder and CEO of BuzzfeedPeretti has been at the forefront of digital media for almost two decades, sailing changes while the formerly small startup has turned into multimedia power.
But as the company is aging, a question persists: has Peretti’s relentless motivation for innovation made it too entrepreneurial to lead Buzzfeed to long-term stability?
“What is good about this area,” does Péretti, “do you do something [different] All the time. It is not 20 years of a job. It’s been 20 years to manage a startup, then manage a hypersaling company, then determine how to make the company public. . . And now the explosion of generative AI. There is always something to keep the job cool and new. »»
Peretti’s ability to adapt and stay in advance on the curve was a characteristic of the success of Buzzfeed. Years ago, Buzzfeed was an almost singular success in its strange capacity to shareable media. (A video segment, focused on the reasons why Disney Princes would make “terrible boyfriends”, has accumulated 77 million views over the years.)
Today, Buzzfeed focuses on AI, including quizs and other Contents generated by AI. It also pours some of its resources into a development product called BF Island, a social network which aims to merge AI with the creation of content to “spread joy and allow a fun creative expression”. So he said to Axios last month, anyway.
Peretti regularly discusses the next company’s next companies with the mediaEven when they are still in their infancy. When asked why he said to Techcrunch: “The idea of talking about things you work on is that you improve the product … When you talk about it, it’s not only with your team but with outside people who might want to collaborate. When there is a new computer platform, there is an explosion of creativity. These are the moments when you can build something new.”
This entrepreneurial campaign has fueled a large part of BuzzFeed’s most emblematic projects. The company launched viral questionnaires and listicles, then pivoted more serious journalism with Buzzfeed News. But all these quarters of work did not bear fruit. In particular, despite its early success, Buzzfeed News was farm In 2023, leaving questions about the question of whether the company should have collided with a clear vision rather than jumping between them.
Buzzfeed shareholders could think about the same after the race for the roller coasters on which they were. Buzzfeed became public via a special vehicle for special use in 2021 and as part of the transaction, he acquired a media company, complex networks, for 300 million dollars in cash and shares. Today, Buzzfeed is still negotiating publicly, but he does not have this company; He sold it roughly $ 108 million Last year. More recently, Buzzfeed sold another asset of this complex network agreement – we are first enjoying – in a separation $ 82.5 million All-carrier case. (Explains Peretti of the two sales, “these are not so much technological companies. They are heavier in production and talent.”)
Buzzfeed shares, at a price of $ 10 initially, are now negotiated $ 2.20 per share.
This is where the tension resides. The adoption of Peretti of constant reinvention is striking, but this also means that the company’s strategy has often felt a series of experiences rather than a long -term coherent plan. Experiences also have a cost. Peretti says that BF Island is a bet of $ 10 million for the moment that should not generate income this year. He adds that the “main cases” of Buzzfeed are profitable.
It is fair to know if Buzzfeed would be better served by a singular and consistent vision for the future – as the New York Times has managed to achieve – rather than 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 wave of generative AI revolutionizes the way people create and share content. In addition, as excited as it seems about possibilities, Peretti looks clear about risks.
“What is important is that Buzzfeed gave us a lot of experience with the new formats,” he said. “We have obtained many people from people who have ideas and who want to collaborate with us.”
In addition, adds Peretti, who is now used to balancing growth and financial pressures: “I think that the deeper understanding of higher level is what to do the same thing again and again and trying to cring it is actually a more risky strategy than innovating, experimenting, trying new things, keeping an open mind, and trying to understand new approaches or new ways of gaining in a really difficult market.”
You can hear much more from our interview with Peretti in a future episode of Download strictlyVC; New episodes fall every Tuesday.
