How business news fits in at BuzzFeed

Laura Shin of SmartPlanet.com writes about how business news will fit into BuzzFeed’s operation.

Shin writes, “Section editor, Peter Lauria, who was hired from Reuters and spent five years at the New York Post leading media, tech and entertainment coverage, says, ‘Nobody is saying that BuzzFeed is going to replace The Wall Street Journal as an investor’s first business read of the day.’ But he does think that bringing business personalities or data to life in fun ways will attract the LinkedIn, Wall Street and executive crowd as well as traditional BuzzFeed readers.

“He describes the main business topics BuzzFeed Business will cover — Wall Street, media/entertainment, consumer technology, specialty retail — as ‘sexy and inherently shareable.’ Lauria notes: ‘There’s an appetite among people in the business community to not always be taken so seriously and be bland, boring suit-and-tie-wearing people that have no personalities.’

“Dean Starkman, editor of Columbia Journalism Review’s business section, says the strategy is a good one. ‘The reason this makes sense is that it’s not about creating content for a BuzzFeed reader. What they’re really targeting is LinkedIn…. And they’ll do it according to their formula — being as sensational and attention-grabbing as possible. There’s nothing inherently serious about business news that you can’t play with.’

“Before launching the section, Smith told The Wall Street Journal he wanted to ‘bring some of the DNA of a great tabloid business section’ to the site. Lauria says this means several things, beginning with having a certain attitude or point of view.”

Read more here.