BuzzFeed gives biz news a millenial feel

J. Max Robins of Technomy takes a look at the recent launch by BuzzFeed to cover business news.

Robins writes, “A scant month into the launch of BuzzFeed’s business section and its editor Peter Lauria is stoked. The news establishment from whence he hails has already taken notice. Out of the gate, The New York Times, the Financial Times, and CNBC, among others, have followed scoops by Lauria and his young team. For example, after news surfaced that Bloomberg reporters were using the financial services giant’s terminals to report on clients, BuzzFeed uncovered that higher-ups at the company knew about the unsavory practice for more than a year.

At first glance, it seems folly for BuzzFeed—best known for cute animals and celebrity-focused, GIF-padded list stories—to invest in business news, an area that gets carpet-bomb coverage. Even Lauria readily admits much business reportage has become a ‘commodity.’ Still, there’s a savvy method to BuzzFeed’s mad dive into business news. Opportunity exists where digital style meets journalistic substance that can grab a millennial audience already engaged in BuzzFeed’s ecosystem. ‘It’s like how we cover retail,’ says Lauria. ‘Knowing the BuzzFeed audience, we’re more likely to do enterprise pieces on Urban Outfitters or Abercrombie than we might be on Walmart.’

“Lauria learned well about covering business with a bit of tabloid vigor and sass at the New York Post, followed by a short stint at The Daily Beast. He knows how biz news giants churn it out too, having been at Reuters before being lured away to BuzzFeed last March. Once ensconced at BuzzFeed, Lauria assembled a group of four young journalists, refugees from The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Bloomberg, Reuters, and elsewhere, all with chops in key areas such as retail, technology, and finance. As Lauria was exiting Reuters, all were eager to come aboard a news operation with scant bureaucracy and a start-up ethos.”