NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Technology

1 big overhaul: How Buzzfeed is refreshing itself

By Ian Burrell
Independent·
13 Apr, 2014 10:36 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Buzzfeed has a room dedicated to the NoNoNoNo Cat, pictured above.

Buzzfeed has a room dedicated to the NoNoNoNo Cat, pictured above.

The Independent's Ian Burrell gets the low down on how phenomenally successful site Buzzfeed is seeking to refresh itself.

"We are not trying to escape the cats, the animals and the lists," says Lisa Tozzi, a former news-desk editor at The New York Times as she defends what has been the signature content of BuzzFeed, the phenomenally successful news and entertainment site where she recently chose to ply her trade.

I am speaking to Tozzi in one of the meeting rooms in BuzzFeed's large new premises in the prestigious "Tiffany Building" on Fifth Avenue in New York. The room, like the others that flank BuzzFeed's newsroom, is named after one of the cats that - through their feline feats and photogenic qualities - have helped to establish the popularity of the site.

There is the Winston Bananas room, dedicated to a moggy with an extraordinary downturned mouth, and I am sitting in a space dedicated to the "NoNoNoNo Cat" that I later observe on a YouTube clip that has had more than 10 million views. It was an experience I doubt I will ever forget. Look it up.

"The cats, the animals and the lists are great things about this organisation and we do them very well and the audience likes them," Tozzi says. "It's more like, in addition to this entertainment content that we do better than anyone else, we are also going to do hard news better than anyone else."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Shortly afterwards, and still sitting in the "NoNoNoNo Cat Room", I find myself talking on the phone to the award-winning investigative reporter Mark Schoofs, one of BuzzFeed's most important recruits. Schoofs won a Pulitzer Prize for an eight-part report on the Aids crisis in Africa, published in The Village Voice, and went on to work for 11 years at the Wall Street Journal before heading to ProPublica, the highly-respected and philanthropy-funded organisation which produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Now he is at BuzzFeed, a site that was last week running headlines such as "The 27 Most Comforting Feelings In The Whole Wide World".

He shows no sign of embarrassment. There is a common thread running through BuzzFeed's content, he says, from its list-based entertainment stories to the 10,000 word investigative pieces that he is overseeing. The skill is in identifying the right stories and presenting them in an attractive manner.

"People think that we can turn some dial and everything will go wild on Twitter and Facebook - that's not true. The trick is that there is no trick. It's actually human beings who decide whether they like something enough that they will share it, whether that's a cat video or an investigative report. You can't lay it out like a legal brief."

The very appointment of Schoofs in October was a clear signal of BuzzFeed's commitment to becoming a serious news provider. He is currently assembling a team of six experienced investigative reporters.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

BuzzFeed was hatched in 2006 as an idea of Jonah Peretti, co-founder of The Huffington Post. The move beyond identifying cute internet content that might go viral began two years ago when Peretti brought in Ben Smith from Politico (which reports on America's political corridors of power) to build a newsroom.

Schoofs says the growing reputation of BuzzFeed's political, business and foreign reporting teams has helped him to hire top investigative talent from traditional news organisations. He admits he was "worried" that people would not make the switch. "I'm no longer worried about that at all. People want to work for BuzzFeed. They see the scale of its readership, the way it's growing and the seriousness of the news on many different levels and want to be a part of it."

He has brought in Aram Roston, a former CNN and NBC News investigative reporter who wrote a book on the Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi called The Man Who Pushed America to War. Schoofs has hired Ken Bensinger from The Los Angeles Times and Alex Campbell from The Indianapolis Star, both of whom have track records in exposing political and corporate corruption.

Schoofs has no doubt that long-form journalism can thrive online, citing "Sixty Words And A War Without End", an 11,000-word BuzzFeed piece by Gregory Johnsen on the authorisation for US military intervention in Afghanistan. "We know - because we can track this - that almost half of the people made it to 85 per cent of the way or further. They spent 22 minutes on that story which in internet time is an aeon. People read long stuff if it's well written." BuzzFeed has a dedicated "Longform" section on its website.

Discover more

World

Horrifying video goes viral

01 Jan 06:52 PM
Technology

Vine: How did it get so big?

31 Jan 04:30 PM
Technology

Game has world in a flap

04 Feb 04:42 AM
Technology

Go fund yourself

21 Mar 04:30 PM

It is also extending its foreign coverage under Miriam Elder (former Moscow bureau chief for The Guardian), and recently hired Paul Hamilos from The Guardian's foreign desk. It has reporters in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Across New York, in the trendy Brooklyn neighbourhood of Williamsburg, another youth-orientated media brand, Vice, is also expanding its foreign reporting footprint. It hired film-maker Ben Anderson, who made the Holidays in the Axis of Evil series for the BBC. Its reporter Simon Ostrovsky flew to Crimea and the traditional outlets CNN and NSNBC took his footage. Vice made its early reputation by highlighting fashion faux pas as a street-wise free magazine. In its "Bear Room" studio it has a stuffed bear that was shot in the making of a film in Greenland and now provides an unorthodox backdrop. This is not news as Dan Rather would know it.

While Vice is growing its reputation for documentary film-making (and attracting older viewers and partnering with established broadcasters), Tozzi and Schoofs indicate that BuzzFeed (which has a video unit in LA) will focus primarily on text and photos.

In a fascinating presentation on the future of news at the Shift 2014 conference in London last week, Jason Seiken, the reforming editor-in-chief at The Daily Telegraph, showcased drone journalism (flying cameras) and scoffed at BuzzFeed for not being in the serious news game. He showed a BuzzFeed headline: "Man In A Banana Suit At Large After Attacking A Man In A Gorilla Suit."

Tozzi talks proudly of how BuzzFeed has become known for coverage of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual transsexual) stories and for tackling the scourge of "rape culture" on American college campuses. She says these subjects are "big issues for our readers, who are largely 18 to 34-year-olds".

Meanwhile, older news organisations chase young readers online with youthful entertainment content and present it alongside more serious stories while trying to maintain their brand values. It's a tough balancing act. But they should be encouraged that BuzzFeed, which admittedly has no long-standing news reputation to lose, believes that cute cats and dogs and serious investigations can live happily side by side.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

- UK Independent

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Technology

Premium
World

Videos make pay day routines everybody’s business

06 Jul 07:00 PM
Premium
World

Influencing without influencers - firms get staffers to star in lo-fi content

06 Jul 07:00 PM
Premium
Business|companies

Silicon Valley to NZ: Kiwi Facebook Marketplace inventor is back home to give back

05 Jul 12:00 AM

Audi offers a sporty spin on city driving with the A3 Sportback and S3 Sportback

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Technology

Premium
Videos make pay day routines everybody’s business

Videos make pay day routines everybody’s business

06 Jul 07:00 PM

New York Times: TikTok and Instagram videos outline what people earn, where dollars go.

Premium
Influencing without influencers - firms get staffers to star in lo-fi content

Influencing without influencers - firms get staffers to star in lo-fi content

06 Jul 07:00 PM
Premium
Silicon Valley to NZ: Kiwi Facebook Marketplace inventor is back home to give back

Silicon Valley to NZ: Kiwi Facebook Marketplace inventor is back home to give back

05 Jul 12:00 AM
Premium
A new global divide: AI boom creates gap between nations

A new global divide: AI boom creates gap between nations

04 Jul 08:00 PM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP