BuzzFeed News has slashed its podcasting team to double down on original video, seemingly a major driver of most top media players. With the tired ‘pivot to video’ trope rearing its head again, BuzzFeed News is keen to reinvest its podcast efforts in creating original shows for social media. It has released a handful of its in-house podcast teams. They produced shows such as ‘See Something Say Something,’ ’The News’ and ‘Reporting To You.’ The move has had its critics. Shani Hilton, vice president of news and programming at BuzzFeed News announced the new direction in a memo to staff acquired by the Wall Street Journal. It read: “We’ve decided to move to a production model that is more like our TV projects - that is, treating shows as individual projects, with teams brought on as needed.” The publication says only a handful of staff will be affected by the move, and it will continue to produce some podcasts, albeit with fewer resources. The tightening of the belt stems from a digital advertising industry that its providing less bang for its buck for publishers. As a result, the company missed its financial targets by $350m in 2017, a hit that saw it very publicly chop 100 staff. Since then, it has rolled out numerous rebrands of its sub-brands and has released an original TV show discussion strictly for social media consumption. It comes as USA Today goes all out to promote its new investigative podcast, The City, which even launched with an augmented reality explainer - an example of a publisher not going cold on podcasts. // Featured in this article Buzzfeed BuzzFeed has breaking news, vital journalism, quizzes, videos, celeb news, Tasty food videos, recipes, DIY hacks, and all the trending buzz you'll want to share with your friends.
Buzzfeed News has cut its in-house podcasting team, in an effort to focus on original video content for social media. The teams behind podcasts like See Something Say Something, The News, and Reporting to You, have been let go. Some podcasts will continue, but the company wishes to focus on individual projects with teams brought in as needed, rather than as a constant fixture. The cuts are a response to a difficult digital advertising market, which saw the Wall Street Journal miss its 350 revenue target by 15-20% in 2017 , which led to the earlier removal of 100 employees.