oward the end of Traffic, a new account of the early rock n roll years of internet publishing, Ben Smith writes that the failings of Buzzfeed News had come about as a result of a “utopian ideology, from a kind of magical thinking”.
The deal, which would save the company from liquidation, would wipe out nearly every Vice stockholder, the Wall Street Journal reported, including backers such as private equity firm TPG Group, Sixth Street Partners and media mogul James Murdoch. But the advertising model had deep flaws, not least that the flow of visitors to websites could be disrupted when the primary distribution networks for the traffic – internet giants Google and Facebook – could at any moment change their codes – algorithm – and send internet news customers elsewhere.
But at a certain moment Buzzfeed hit hard. It went from pioneering the humorous, irrelevant listicle –– to major, ground-breaking investigations and a Pulitzer Prize. It could also dominate news cycles, even if in controversial circumstances. It was Smith’s Buzzfeed who published the notorious Russian election interference “Steele dossier”.
If both Buzzfeed and Vice were in different ways emblematic of their eras, then they’re also unlikely to return. The dreams that they pursued were, like hundreds of other internet-based enterprises, a function of ultra low interest rates and speculative investment that have now passed.