It's a bit of a misleading title, I'll admit. It's in reference to Buzzfeed, which recently laid of 15% of its workforce in the wake of missed earnings and general mismanagement. It seems like there's a feeling among competitors and bystanders that Buzzfeed, representing digital media, has been given a carte blanche to try new media tactics and not need to prove their results. This is in direct opposition to traditional media outlets, which are under higher scrutiny than ever before.
Industry veterans seemed, to put it kindly, frustrated by Buzzfeed's tactics. The melange of "real reporting" and stupid quizzes are not valuable for today's consumer. Buzzfeed disagrees, while content goes viral (another buzzword that seems to be pissing people off). All of this flanked by user-created content, and it seemed the bar for what is considered consumable content was lowered considerably.
The truth here of course is not that digital media and digital advertising are hurting. We know it's just the opposite. But in the nascence of it's development, there's a struggle to closely tie the investment to the future earnings. After all, we can sit here and say that digital is the way of the future and I think most would agree. But how do you show that in revenue? Traditional revenue streams may keep their death grip on revenues while we figure out how it all adds up.
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