'It pivoted into oblivion': BuzzFeed sold off the company behind 'Hot Ones' to pay down its debt
Briefly

A decade ago, BuzzFeed was redefining what news and entertainment on the web meant. The website's mix of hard-hitting news, in-depth features, and viral listicles offered a vision of the future for journalism that many sought to follow.
BuzzFeed was a media company that investors bought into expecting a tech company. And they're just very different businesses. Media is expensive, low margin, and hard to scale up rapidly.
The company has undergone a series of layoffs, and just this month it sold off its golden goose for $82.5 million in order to meet a debt obligation.
That a dude with a couple cameras and a plate of appetizers can make something worth $82.5 million and a media company looks at that and goes 'couldn't we make even more money if we had AI do it?' tells you exactly how stupid these people are.
Read at Fast Company
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