SocialTimes recently caught up with Frenkel to discuss her new job, what it’s like working for BuzzFeed compared to other media outlets, how she uses social media and digital tools in the field, and more.
"BuzzFeed, best known for promoting viral content, has been expanding rapidly into more serious journalism, including foreign news, and now has a news team of roughly 130 journalists." -New York Times
"The fast-growing social news site is making a big push to create videos that connect with its users, and it's striving to be one of the world's most visited websites within a year." -Los Angeles Times
September 2013 – “In today’s media age, Buzzfeed is just as important as The New York Times, and the price of doing business is cheaper." -Peter Hamby, Harvard University Joan Shorenstein Center
May 9, 2013 – "BuzzFeed is starting an effort to train agencies in BuzzFeed-style storytelling -- all the better to support its bottom line with sponsored posts, also known as 'native advertising.'" -AdAge
May 3, 2013 - "BuzzFeed seems to have it down to a science…but playing by the rules only goes so far. It helps to have a team of the industry's finest." -Nightline
April 25, 2013 - "Buzzfeed has made yet another big hire from The New York Times: Lisa Tozzi, an editor on the paper's news desk. Tozzi, Smith says, is that Buzzfeed-ideal combination of hard-boiled news reporter...and savvy social-media user. " -The Atlantic
April 7, 2013 - "Jonah Peretti’s viral-content machine purports to have solved the problems of both journalism and advertising at once, all with the help of a simple algorithm." -New York Magazine
April 4, 2013 - “We believe the ultimate targeting is real human-to-human sharing, digital word of mouth, so we don’t do third-party cookie targeting.” -Eric Harris, BuzzFeed EVP of Business Operations
March 17, 2013 - "There is increasingly this big, social conversation around business content that people are sharing and reading, and we want to be in it." -Ben Smith, BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief
February 11, 2013 – Fast Company features BuzzFeed as #18 in their Top 50 Most Innovative Companies issue. "For Reinventing How News (And Advertising) Is Shared."
January 11, 2013 – BuzzFeed Founder & CEO Jonah Peretti and Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith join Maria Bartiromo on CNBC's On The Money to talk about CES, the company's recent round of funding, getting into the ebook business and more.
January 3, 2013 – "We work with brands to help them speak the language of the web. I think there's an opportunity to create a golden age of advertising, like another Mad Men age of advertising, where people are really creative and take it seriously." -Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed Founder & CEO
December 17, 2012 – "This Newsweek veteran has brought his talents to hot media start-up Buzzfeed, where he serves as resident expert on the conservative movement and the intersection of politics and religion." -Forbes
October 21, 2012 – "Social news website BuzzFeed is going Hollywood, signing up a pair of former Los Angeles Times editors and a high-profile investigative reporter as the cornerstone of a new push to cover entertainment." -THR
October 17, 2012 – "Jonah Peretti has made a massive bet that smart people -- specifically writers and editors -- are key to the success of a next generation media company." - FORTUNE
October 17, 2012 – "The company, founded by CEO Jonah Peretti, is on a mission to create its own vertical as a publication, and has taken a step today to grow even more." - TechCrunch
September 19, 2012 – "The hire comes as the fast-growing digital-media company aims to work with brands and agencies to develop innovative sponsorship ideas and ad units." -AdAge
September 17, 2012 – "With its newest section, Rewind, BuzzFeed takes users back to the decade of their choice by serving up archived content of classic images." -Digiday
September 14, 2012 – "Here’s a good chocolate/peanut butter combination: Buzzfeed, the click-factory that has figured out Facebook and Twitter, plus Ze Frank, the guy who figured out Web video back in its infancy." -AllThingsD
September 13, 2012 – "BuzzFeed sells sponsored posts about brands like Red Bull and injects them into its own homepage feed of cute kitten, ridiculous lists, and insightful journalism. Kingfish will help it buy Facebook ads that drive traffic to those sponsored posts." - TechCrunch
August 29, 2012 – "At its core, BuzzFeed is all about the data, which the site is constantly collecting through a publishing partner network." - Adweek
August 21, 2012 – "We have this massive universe of peers. I want to beat all of them on everything. Maybe it’s BuzzFeed versus the Internet. Every day is us being as good as we can possibly be that day. " -Zeke Miller
July 26, 2012 - "We're exclusively focused on creating shareable content for both brands, individuals and all different kinds of content that our editors create, so we're all about sharing and we're all about social," Jon Steinberg, President & COO, BuzzFeed
July 3, 2012 - "Tight vertical integration isn't just the future of tech, it is the future of publishing and advertising as well," Jon Steinberg, President & COO, BuzzFeed and Jonah Peretti, Founder & CEO, BuzzFeed
June 26, 2012 - "What you're seeing now is social media evolving to include original reporting, scoops, substantive articles, long opinion pieces... now it's really starting to encompass the whole range of different types of content," Jonah Peretti, Founder & CEO, BuzzFeed
June 22, 2012 - "Creating a viral phenomenon isn't just about getting people to click... BuzzFeed's business is built on getting people to go one step further and share on social networks like Facebook or email." -NPR
June 18, 2012 – The Atlantic: And the collaboration makes, initial WTF notwithstanding, a lot of sense. "We're looking to fuse the energy and the social awareness that Ben and his reporters have with a lot of our traditional reporting strengths and styles," -Jim Roberts, The New York Times Assistant Managing Editor.
June 2012 – "A lot of what works in social is the same as what works in journalism," Smith says. "People like it and share it because they think their friends will like it too."
May 29, 2012 – "I can't think of a better mobile news app right now....BuzzFeed makes it so easy to share its content with others in a humorous and fun way." -The Street
May 21, 2012 - "With nearly 27 million unique visitors a month (according to Google Analytics in April), BuzzFeed is clearly a careful steward of its content ecosystem. It also tends to be way ahead of the viral curve," -iMedia Connection
May 18, 2012 - "Some, like Peretti, are banking on the success of the social Web and brands emulating publishers to connect on a more emotional level with consumers," -Adweek
May 18, 2012 - "Portals are about impressions, search is about queries and social is about sharing. It turns out that sharing is a richer, more human currency," Jonah Peretti, Founder & CEO, BuzzFeed
May 17, 2012 - "BuzzFeed is a different story. The social content hub relies on sharing, not Googling and gets double the traffic from Facebook," - CNBC Squawk Box
May 15, 2012 – "It's a phenomenal company when you look at the level of engagement. And there's nothing to compare it to....I think they have a really bright future." -Jonah Peretti
May 2012 – "A lot of it comes down to understanding human behavior" he says, "which is why it's so quirky and interesting, and why it won't be reduced to a science." -Jonah Peretti
March 19, 2012 - "For those seeking to understand the anatomy of a viral hit, Peretti is their man. The 38-year-old entrepreneur has spent much of his career monitoring online social behavior and creating the most buzzed-about Web content." -Adweek
April 18, 2012 - "Whether it’s serious or substantive content with reporting or entertaining content, things spread through social channels now," -Jonah Peretti
February 27, 2012 - "Of course, sponsored posts aren't exactly new. But Buzzfeed has managed to wrap the concept in social sheen, sprinkle in its pop culture-focused voice, and optimize distribution better than most," -AdAge
February 5, 2012 – "Mr. Peretti has high and low, news and fun, all ready for sharing" and "BuzzFeed is growing some serious news muscles." -The New York Times
January 25, 2012 - "People exposed via sharing had a significantly bigger lift in positive attitudes toward GE -- associating the brand with such things as creativity and innovation -- than people exposed via paid placements," -AdAge
January 12, 2012 – "We have a very smart audience. Although they came to BuzzFeed for lighthearted stuff, they are people who consume serious news elsewhere. A lot of them will be excited and refreshed that they can now get news in a format that they've loved, that BuzzFeed's provided for them." -Jonah Peretti
January 11, 2012 - "I think the era of one news organization thinking they have to cover everything in the world is over. We want to focus on things things that we think are important and do the best possible job with it." -Jonah Peretti
December 12, 2011 – "In a move that is sure to surprise the political and journalistic classes, the site is hiring Ben Smith, one of the foremost writers at Politico, to build a new breed of social news organization." -The New York Times