Jonah Peretti

BuzzFeed took another lap around its AI-related talking points as its advertising business took another lap around the drain.

In today’s newsletter: The “user agent” concept is dead; principal-based buying is just arbitrage by another name; and a deep dive into BuzzFeed’s doomed acquisition of Complex.

As stiffer competition between social media companies shuts out publishers that depend on social traffic, BuzzFeed’s ad revenue drops 35%.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Variation On A Theme Google launched a new Performance Max search feature called “search themes,” a rare opportunity to learn from the black box that is PMax campaigns. Search themes are broad terms that can inform targeting, even if the company doesn’t bid […]

BuzzFeed is “laser focused” on using AI-generated content to drive audiences to its owned-and-operated platforms and away from social media, CEO Jonah Peretti told investors.

BuzzFeed is sticking to its conviction that journalism is old news and influencer-led video and generative AI are the future.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. High Voltage Media Last week, we mentioned Volta, a company that manufactures electric car charging stations, in our new weekly Commerce Media newsletter as an apt example of the strange inventory grab-bag that sometimes exists behind a retail media platform. For Volta Media, […]

BuzzFeed hopes its investments in trendy tech like generative AI and short-form vertical video, with a bigger focus on commerce, will eventually pay dividends.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. BuzzCuts BuzzFeed is laying off 12% of its workforce, Variety reports, based on an SEC filing. The reduction will apparently help BuzzFeed “weather an economic downturn that I believe will extend well into 2023,” writes CEO Jonah Peretti in a memo.  BuzzFeed’s revenue […]

As BuzzFeed struggles with advertiser uncertainty and a drop in user engagement, it reported flat Q3 ad revenue. Advertising revenue was $50 million, matching last year’s Q3. Ad revenue growth decelerated compared to Q2, “driven by ongoing price compression and uncertainty around consumer demand,” said BuzzFeed CFO Felicia DellaFortuna.