BuzzFeed

Just days before we spoke, BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti agreed to sell the company, which was losing money and at risk of shutting down. Now there’s a new lease on life — and new leadership. Jonah is taking on a new role as president of BuzzFeed AI, and Byron Allen will become CEO of BuzzFeed.  That’s obviously a huge structural and organizational change, and a really big decision — prime Decoder bait if there ever was any. What are digital media companies doing to adapt and survive in an information landscape dominated by algorithmic social platforms? Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links:  Byron Allen is buying BuzzFeed and becoming CEO | Variety BuzzFeed issues going concern warning, lacks liquidity | Wall Street Journal BuzzFeed News is shutting down | The Verge BuzzFeed sells Hot Ones studio in $82.5M deal | NBC News The unbearable lightness of BuzzFeed | The Verge I hate myself because I don’t work for BuzzFeed (2015) | The Awl Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt; this episode was edited by Kabir Chopra. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jonah Peretti

Co-founder, BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed

Today’s callers: Anthony from Miami considers the best method to grow his pop-up outdoor movie theater business. Then Andrew in San Francisco asks how to set his cat wrestling toy apart from competitors. Finally, Melissa in Massachusetts seeks strategies for getting busy parents excited about her healthy frozen muffins. Plus, Jonah shares what’s next for Buzzfeed as the company marks 20 years of business. Thank you to the founders of Motion Flix, CATSUMO, and Unrefined Foods for joining us on the show. If you’d like to be featured on a future Advice Line episode—where Guy and former show guests take questions from early-stage founders—leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and a specific question you’d like answered. Send a voice memo to hibt@id.wondery.com or call 1-800-433-1298. And be sure to listen to Buzzfeed’s founding story as told by Jonah on the show in 2017. This episode was produced by Katherine Sypher with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Casey Herman. Our audio engineer was Kwesi Lee. You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram and sign up for Guy's free newsletter at guyraz.com and on Substack. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jonah Peretti

Co-founder, BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed

We started this year with layoffs and the whole "Tech Recession" narrative. So, as we wind up the year, did tech recover this year, and if so, how? Also, self-driving cars and speculation on Monday's Apple event. Check out Big Technology here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex Kantrowitz

Reporter

BuzzFeed NewsBig TechnologyBuzzFeed

Rapid Response with Bob Safian: If the most prestigious aspect of your business isn’t paying dividends, should you leave it in the past? BuzzFeed’s co-founder and CEO, Jonah Peretti discusses the surprising decision to shutter the Pulitzer Prize-winning BuzzFeed News, and how the company seeks to re-anchor toward the bright future of media. In his third appearance on Rapid Response, Peretti shares lessons about redefining the tool of social media, leading a private versus public business, and how to tune-out the external noise. Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com/ Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribe See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jonah Peretti

Co-founder, BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed

Emergency bonus episode! Is this the moment for Twitter alternatives? T2.social is one of them and the founder of that project, @gabor, joins us to kick it all around. So does our friend Alex Kantrowitz from @BigTechnology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gabor Cselle

Founder

T2.social

Alex Kantrowitz

Reporter

BuzzFeed NewsBig TechnologyBuzzFeed

Our friend Alex Kantrowitz returns to my kitchen table for a crossover episode with Big Technology Podcast (subscribe here) to discuss whether or not Meta is going to see its promise land Metaverse? And are we in a recession or just a tech recession? Oh. And tips to survive plane travel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex Kantrowitz

Reporter

BuzzFeed NewsBig TechnologyBuzzFeed

F*** it! We did it live! Chris and me and @Kantrowitz around my kitchen table! Are we in for the biggest week of Facebook's life? Check out Big Technology! Sponsors: VPLS.com/goit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex Kantrowitz

Reporter

BuzzFeed NewsBig TechnologyBuzzFeed

Millennials and Gen Z want different experiences, different content, different opportunities. But catering to those distinct needs wasn't enough, says BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti; the digital-media outfit also needed to create a flywheel for value. When the pandemic trimmed tens of millions in revenue, Peretti cut back on costs – but kept the flywheel spinning. By the end of 2020 his team had engineered a rebound, finishing the year with record profitability. Now, the company has announced plans to go public via SPAC at a $1.5 billion valuation. With the acquisitions of HuffPost and Complex Networks, Peretti has shown that his ambitions are just beginning. Read a transcript of this interview at: mastersofscale.com Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribe See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jonah Peretti

Co-founder, BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed

lex Kantrowitz of the Big Technology newsletter comes on to try to help us work out what happened with that Facebook Antitrust case blowup. Also, what does this mean for regulating other companies. Hosts: @chrismessina @brianmcc Check out Alex's Big Technology Newsletter Here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex Kantrowitz

Reporter

BuzzFeed NewsBig TechnologyBuzzFeed

The TikTok saga. It’s gonna end. Or it’s gonna happen. Or it’s gonna… something in the next few days. Will it be sold? Will it not be? Will it be banned in the US. There are so many angles here. So many interesting ways to tease out something that is unprecedented in the world of Tech. Alex Kantrowitz pinged me to talk about it and he’s a good dude to do so because he wrote a book about the big tech platforms, and, as we get into… this is so rare. A big up and coming platform that is just, for weird a-historical reasons, being offered up on a platter for the other powers that be to… maybe take over? I quoted Alex when he was at Buzzfeed for years. But as we discuss at the end, Alex has gone solo! Check out his newsletter Big Technology. Check out his podcast, Big Technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex Kantrowitz

Reporter

BuzzFeed NewsBig TechnologyBuzzFeed

BuzzFeed audience is at record highs. But the pandemic's economic effects have crushed the bottom line. BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti shares how his company is making hard decisions to build long-term stability. “But the transition is painful,” he says. While BuzzFeed is leaning into food vertical Tasty, new e-commerce habits, and BuzzFeed News, he worries that businesses like his don't have more resources to support staffers of color. But, he says, there's a clarity of purpose in crisis, in bearing witness to the things that are happening in the world. Interviewed by editor Bob Safian. Read a transcript of this episode at https://mastersofscale.com Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter at https://mastersofscale.com/subscribe See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jonah Peretti

Co-founder, BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed

Alex Kantrowitz is a Senior Tech Reporter at Buzzfeed and an author. The biggest tech companies on the planet are incredibly dominant and today we discover what is inside each of them that drives their competitive edge. Expect to learn why powerpoint is banned from Amazon, what a one-to-one meeting with Mark Zuckerberg is like, why Apple might need systemic change if they're not going to fall behind, how Microsoft was turned around by a single man, why CeeLo Green is a good spokesperson and much more... Sponsor: Sign up to FitBook at https://fitbook.co.uk/join-fitbook/ (enter code MODERNWISDOM for 50% off your membership) Extra Stuff: Follow Alex on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Kantrowitz Buy Always Day One - https://amzn.to/2LM6tNe Take a break from alcohol and upgrade your life - https://6monthssober.com/podcast Check out everything I recommend from books to products - https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/modernwisdom - Get in touch. Join the discussion with me and other like minded listeners in the episode comments on the MW YouTube Channel or message me... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ModernWisdomPodcast Email: https://www.chriswillx.com/contact Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex Kantrowitz

Reporter

BuzzFeed NewsBig TechnologyBuzzFeed

BuzzFeed News reporter Alex Kantrowitz talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, Always Day One: How The Tech Titans Plan To Stay On Top Forever. He discusses how coronavirus may change consumers’ relationship with tech giants, the opportunity for a new major labor movement, and how the companies he profiled in the book — including Amazon, Apple, and Facebook — keep from getting out-innovated. Kantrowitz says education, and not automation, is the larger problem for the long-term future of work, and argues that TikTok is one of the only places young people are learning to be creative; he also explains why Apple is stuck in a similar rut now to the one Microsoft was in under Steve Ballmer. Plus: Can you steal from Amazon's cashier-less grocery story? Featuring: Alex Kantrowitz (@Kantrowitz), author, Always Day One: How The Tech Titans Plan To Stay On Top Forever Host: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: On Reset, Arielle Duhaime-Ross explores why — and how — tech is changing everything. On Recode Media, Peter Kafka interviews business titans, journalists, comedians and podcasters about the collision of tech and media. On Pivot, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway talk about the big tech news stories of the week, who's winning, who's failing, and what comes next. And on Land of the Giants, Jason Del Rey chronicled the rise of Amazon. Season 2 will focus on Netflix and is coming soon! About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Follow Us: Newsletter: Recode Daily Twitter: @Recode and @voxdotcom Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Kantrowitz

Reporter

BuzzFeed NewsBig TechnologyBuzzFeed

I couldn’t tell you the amount of times, over the last two years, I’ve quoted pieces from Alex Kantrowitz on this show. Hundreds of times? Easy? Alex is the senior tech reporter at Buzzfeed News, and, while I don’t have favorite people to quote from on this show (I shouldn’t anyway) the sheer number of times I quote from someone should tell you something about the amount of news they break. The insights they have. Alex has an amazing new book out called Always Day One- How the Tech Titans Plan to Stay On Top Forever. And as I said yesterday, it’s an amazing breakdown of not only the cultural DNA of each of the tech giants, but also a useful playbook to their success… a way to understand how they do what they do and why they win more often than not. Amazing book. Anyone who listens to this show every day will find it useful in informing the competitive analysis we always engage in. Sponsor: Tovala.com/ride Buy the book here! Always Day One - How the Tech Titans Plan to Stay On Top Forever Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex Kantrowitz

Reporter

BuzzFeed NewsBig TechnologyBuzzFeed

How can we evolve the web for a better future? Has the web become a mature platform — or are we still in the early days of knowing what it can do and what role it might have in our lives? Just as “social/local/mobile” once did, what are the new trends — like crypto and blockchain networks and commerce everywhere — that might converge into new products and experiences? Chris Dixon (general partner at a16z and co-lead of the a16z crypto fund) discusses all things internet with Jonah Peretti (founder and CEO of BuzzFeed). Their conversation ranges from the early days of the web to the way innovation happens (what Chris calls “outside-in vs inside-out”) to the promise of a community-owned and operated internet, and more. Together they explore the possibilities that could co-evolve and converge are we enter into the next era of the web, and they share how we might not be quite as far removed from the “wild west days” of the internet as we imagined. Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jonah Peretti

Co-founder, BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed

What's the secret to making content people love? Join BuzzFeed's Publisher Dao Nguyen for a glimpse at how her team creates their tempting quizzes, lists and videos -- and learn more about how they've developed a system to understand how people use content to connect and create culture. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dao Nguyen

Publisher

BuzzFeed

Summary Buzzfeed needs to be able to understand how its users are interacting with the myriad articles, videos, etc. that they are posting. This lets them produce new content that will continue to be well-received. To surface the insights that they need to grow their business they need a robust data infrastructure to reliably capture all of those interactions. Walter Menendez is a data engineer on their infrastructure team and in this episode he describes how they manage data ingestion from a wide array of sources and create an interface for their data scientists to produce valuable conclusions. Preamble Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management When you’re ready to launch your next project you’ll need somewhere to deploy it. Check out Linode at dataengineeringpodcast.com/linode and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for running your data pipelines or trying out the tools you hear about on the show. Continuous delivery lets you get new features in front of your users as fast as possible without introducing bugs or breaking production and GoCD is the open source platform made by the people at Thoughtworks who wrote the book about it. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/gocd to download and launch it today. Enterprise add-ons and professional support are available for added peace of mind. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com to subscribe to the show, sign up for the newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch. You can help support the show by checking out the Patreon page which is linked from the site. To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers Your host is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Walter Menendez about the data engineering platform at Buzzfeed Interview Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? How is the data engineering team at Buzzfeed structured and what kinds of projects are you responsible for? What are some of the types of data inputs and outputs that you work with at Buzzfeed? Is the core of your system using a real-time streaming approach or is it primarily batch-oriented and what are the business needs that drive that decision? What does the architecture of your data platform look like and what are some of the most significant areas of technical debt? Which platforms and languages are most widely leveraged in your team and what are some of the outliers? What are some of the most significant challenges that you face, both technically and organizationally? What are some of the dead ends that you have run into or failed projects that you have tried? What has been the most successful project that you have completed and how do you measure that success? Contact Info @hackwalter on Twitter walterm on GitHub Links Data Literacy MIT Media Lab Tumblr Data Capital Data Infrastructure Google Analytics Datadog Python Numpy SciPy NLTK Go Language NSQ Tornado PySpark AWS EMR Redshift Tracking Pixel Google Cloud Don’t try to be google Stop Hiring DevOps Engineers and Start Growing Them The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA Support Data Engineering Podcast

Walter Menendez

Data Engineer

BuzzFeed

In 2001, when most of us had no idea what it meant to "go viral," Jonah Peretti shared an email prank among his friends — and saw it spread to millions. That began his fascination with how information spreads, and set him on the path to launch two of the most powerful media organizations of the Internet age: The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed. Recorded live in New York City.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jonah Peretti

Co-founder, BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed

The dream is to learn to code for a few months and get a job right away. But reality comes with a few more twists and turns, as Paola discovered on her way to landing her current software engineering position at BuzzFeed. She was an assitant looking for a better career when she rediscovered code. But getting that better careeer involved attending two bootcamps, doing an internship, and job searching for a year before landing her full-time iOS role. She shares the ups and downs of becoming a developer, the emotional and financial stressess of looking for a job, and the resources that helped her reach her goal. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Turn To Tech Codecademy Code School BuzzFeed The Muse Skillcrush CodeNow Coalition for Queens Viggle Codeland Conf Codeland 2019 Paola Mata Paola is currently building awesome apps at BuzzFeed, where she was part of the team that launched the highly acclaimed BuzzFeed News app. She's also actively involved in the tech community as co-founder of NYC Tech Latinas and regularly volunteers her time to promoting diversity in tech and supporting the next wave of new programmers.

Paola Mata

Software Engineer

BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed’s Executive Editor of News Shani Hilton talks with Peter Kafka about how she rose to a leadership role within one of the world's most talked-about new media companies. She discusses how the site's strategies have changed as she manages a staff of more than 100 people. Plus: Why millennials don't need special news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shani Hilton

Executive Editor of News

BuzzFeed

In this second part of my interview with Cap Watkins, we discuss the coexistence of specialization and generalization. If you enjoy Developer Tea, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on iTunes! Click here to leave a review now! Links: Make sure you listen to the first part of the interview on Spec.fm! "Why Designers Really Should Learn to Code" (on Cap's blog) "Should Engineers Design?" (also on Cap's blog) "The Lie I Tell New Hires" (Cap's blog. No kidding.) Sass vs SCSS BassCSS How Obesity Spreads Among Friends Email Cap at cwatkins@gmail.com Cap's advice: forget ownership. If you're great at what you do, advocate for what you do, and educate others in what you do. This episode is brought to you by Spec.fm! Check out Spec for a ton of content made specifically for developers and designers!

Cap Watkins

VP of Design

BuzzFeed

In today's episode, I had a chance to talk with Cap Watkins, the VP of Design at Buzzfeed, about quite a few things - most importantly, collaboration. @cap Cap Watkins's blog "Low-cal calzone zone" React, and CSS in your JS @developertea "I have still not used the Digital Crown to scroll on the Apple Watch since the first day." Basecamp Hello Web App Today's episode is brought to you by Spec.fm! Head over to Spec.fm for tons of amazing content, created specifically for developers and designers looking to take their career to the next level. Don't forget to subscribe, and leave a review in iTunes!

Cap Watkins

VP of Design

BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed is one of the most important and successful new media companies, tying together deeply reported impact journalism with content optimized for the digital age. Peter Kafka talks with founder and CEO Jonah Peretti, and later on, The Verge's Lauren Goode discusses the Apple event and Jason Del Rey dishes about mobile payments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jonah Peretti

Co-founder, BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed