What BuzzFeed’s CEO really means about pivoting the business to be an AI media and tech company

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti published his annual letter to shareholders Monday afternoon, outlining his vision to turn the flagship BuzzFeed publication into an AI-driven technology and media company.

The “pivot to AI” may be the new “pivot to video” of years’ past (which wasn’t a great strategy for most, to put it kindly). Peretti himself once touted the opportunities in short-form video and creator networks. But that strategy hasn’t led to strong business outcomes — its 2023 revenues, excluding Complex, declined 26% to $253 million, Peretti wrote in the memo. 

At a time of declining referral traffic and other audience attention challenges, Peretti’s solution is for BuzzFeed to focus on its own platforms to drive traffic and pursue generative AI chatbots as a new content format. Whether this will lead to a sustainable business model for a legacy digital publisher remains to be seen.

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