1646 – Issue 3

Can you describe what your day to day job looks like? It usually consists of back-to-back zoom calls covering a range of topics, from navigating TikTok’s latest algorithm change, to trying to understand why the Indian government is penalizing us for some content we published, to pitching to a brand on why they should advertise with us, to supervising the sound mix on a feature film, to getting briefed on a new scoop our investigative journalists are working on, to a video production going over budget because the cats are refusing to perform. It’s a bit of a rollercoaster. The last time I faced this level of variety in my day to day was at Blue Coat… Going from learning about the Battle of Hastings, to building an ill-designed flower pot in Design Technology, to playing rugby, to rehearsing for a school play, all the while dressed in a military uniform for CCF. So what is it you actually do? I guide the editorial direction of the content in our global portfolio across written articles, social posts, videos and premium programming, and then manage the teams, operations and revenue streams in place to keep it a healthy business. For many, BuzzFeed was originally known for quizzes and cat videos, how was it able to grow to become the biggest digital publisher in the world? Quizzes and cat videos helped get us there! We are a creative company that has used the advantages of the internet to constantly learn and iterate with the content we publish, all with the intent to serve, inform or entertain our audience. That has allowed growth in different markets, the launch of new brands, and the acquisitions of other companies. Then because of our online scale and reach, we’ve also been able to move into new territories like consumer products, events and film and television. The best way to now understand BuzzFeed is to picture us as a company that publishes different newspapers, magazines and video content – but most of it is on the internet. We’re doing that all over the world in lots of different languages specific to each market. The Film and TV division – BuzzFeed Studios – was your passion project, can you tell us more about it? Across news, entertainment and lifestyle content, BuzzFeed Inc is publishing a lot of stories that hold good potential as film or tv projects. Whether The school offered so many opportunities to try things and the staff were very encouraging with no one subject put above the others. I think that helped me stay open to new things and keen to learn different perspectives. 12