As of June, Internet sensation Buzzfeed now reaches more people than the New York Times, Washington Post, Economist, Reuters, AP, Guardian, and BBC combined.
“That’s just not how we process news now,” said buzzfeed CEO Lou Bateman. “We want things we genuinely care about.”
The Sunshine Herald was able to sit down with the creative director and driving force behind Buzzfeed Pam Anzka, where she gave us a comprehensive look at how to deliver the news.
Use Gifs.
Anzka: We are not smart enough to understand things without a funny gif attached to it. Besides they also lighten up serious topics. For example the Road Runner clearly depicts our relationship with North Korea without being super downer about it.
Lists.
Anzka: Life is so much easier to digest in list form. It’s also nice to know that there’s only ten things we need to know about any situation in the world. Like the Middle East for example.
Categories.
Anzka: Let’s start classifying news into categories people actually want to read. Politics? World? Economics? No, we Millenials prefer LOL, win, omg, cute, trashy, fail, wtf
Quizzes
Anzka: Buzzfeed does an amazing job helping readers examine themselves in a very crucial way with our quizzes. You can learn a lot about yourself by determining which game of thrones character you would be and how long you would last as a vegetarian.
Comments
Anzka: People want to hear what complete strangers think. In fact, if you’re a top commenter on Buzzfeed you are statistically read more per year than all the Pulitzer prize winning journalists in the last decade.
And finally . . .
Do everything on the internet
Anzka: Duh.