Transcription
BuzzFeed video is the absolute encapsulation of corporate incompetence on YouTube throughout their rise, fall, and current flailing meant to act as a relaunch. Because what started with inoffensive relatable videos turned into an empire, yes, but one that was quickly defined by bad optics.
"I kind of secretly hoped to annoy some men," and management that resorted to some insane measures of gaining absolute power over the lives of anyone on their payroll. They had done this stupid contract that I was refusing to sign. That they had tricked, I feel like tricked the entire company into signing.
"There is a difference between them owning the content that I made for them and them owning my name." Like, we were offered a show with MTV, but BuzzFeed had to like have a hand in it, in this weird culty environment. "Like, you can't succeed unless it's with us." "They own all your intellectual property. You're not allowed to do any projects outside of BuzzFeed, and if it's not with us, we will hinder you." It basically was like, "We own your likeness in any way we want to." "Said, 'We would own your life story.'"
In a lot of ways, they're the perfect case study for how YouTube changed so radically throughout the 2010s thanks to rapidly increasing corporate interest. Though, their recent attempt to reignite the brand could actually be an encouraging sign for creators and viewers going forward. Though, this probably leaves you wondering, how could anyone ruin the momentum that this once Goliath network of channels had? Well, it's the very greed that sparked their coming to YouTube in the first place. Let me explain.
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Now, back to the video. By the mid-2010s, people were catching on to YouTube being far more than the scrappy misfit corner it was initially dismissed as. Production values were starting to climb, and YouTubers were making millions just by uploading videos. So much so that this era also saw people starting YouTube with the express goal of turning it into a business.
"Off the bat, you quit your job." "At the second video." "And then week three, you're like, 'Every Tuesday I'm doing this.'" "I have like four grand in my bank that I saved just from teaching and I'm going to put it in this. It's just got to happen every week."
So of course, major corporations started to eye the platform with dollar signs in their eyes. Usually, this was done by posting snippets of mainstream productions for the sake of promotion. But what if instead of YouTube just acting as a corporate billboard, these companies invested in videos that were made specifically for YouTube? Enter Buzzfeed, where under the leadership of internet video pioneer ZF Frank, they started to roll out this network of YouTube channels with each more or less sticking to a core theme like Buzzfeed Blue centering around scientific content or Buzzfeed Yellow, which focused more on relatable content centering around identity. But at the center of all of this was BuzzFeed video, erected with the intention of being a factory for guaranteed virality. A factory that started to work really well once it found its footing, specifically with personalities.
You see, by 2014, YouTube channels were still very personal. It would be unusual to see a channel where its founders weren't also acting as the faces of the brand. But with BuzzFeed video, they took a different approach. Instead of a core face for a brand, they went with an ensemble for the jump. Effectively hiring producers who in another life would make for perfect YouTubers. They were all charismatic, talented, and multifaceted with the ability to become a jack of all trades for production. Not to mention crank out a constant stream of viral ideas. And those viral ideas generally fell into one of two categories that expertly towed the line for where YouTube's priorities were at during this era, slowly transitioning from rewarding click-through rates and daily uploads to watch time in consistent formats.
"The platform and the algorithm because it was so optimized for long form satisfaction, longtime watch time, you know, all of that stuff, you lost a lot of what founded YouTube in the first place, which was short popcorn viewing videos." This allowed for intentional, high-quality videos to receive the spotlight instead of clickbait or low-effort stunts. So Buzzfeed Video found wild success by blending these two types of content in order to maximize the mileage both could provide with part of this output being one-off videos you could click on because they seemed interesting or entertaining.
"Here's a little science and dirty psychology to sharpen your game and help you totally dominate at rock paper scissors." And not only were these videos simple and easy to follow, they would also respect their viewers' time by getting in and out as quickly as possible. And since they had recruited such a talented network of producers, the quality of the videos themselves were pretty ahead of their time.
But the real success came with their embracing formats, like with the Try Guys, as well as Worth It and Buzzfeed Unsolved, the latter of whom would later join forces for the YouTube channel Watcher. These uploads generally resembled more of what you'd see on YouTube today, where a format is being used consistently with variety being mostly provided by the specific focus of a given video.
"Today, I'm going to try escaping a Swan Team." "Today I'm meeting a bounty hunter and challenging him to a dangerous game of hide-and-seek." "Today I'm meeting a former sniper to see if I can escape him without getting shot." "Like the Try Guys were always going to try something new. Worth it was always going to climb up a ladder of prices to find the balance of luxury with affordability and so on."
But admittedly way ahead of its time was Tasty. Often credited as the pioneer of hands-and-pans cooking videos, Tasty was unique in that it relied much less on personalities and well went on to become a huge brand of its own while being really the only remnant of BuzzFeed to maintain any degree of relevancy all of these years later, though I'll touch on that more in a bit.
Because before long, the cast of the main network of channels became really famous online. I mean, hell, just titling a video "Why I Left Buzzfeed" would pretty much guarantee millions of views since people actually cared. Almost like someone's favorite actor being written off of their favorite show.
But there was a problem. Working at BuzzFeed, especially as a producer, despite how glamorized the gig was to the public, there were some incredibly sinister moves made by management.
"Buzzfeed profited by taking young, stareyed filmmakers, putting them through the grinder, making them work insane hours, pitting them against one another, making them turn out dog, and all kind of like in this weird culty environment." "Just like any other company, they don't always put moral values first. They put getting money first because you can't make a living on moral values, unfortunately."
I mean, sure, part of that relates to burnout and the normal exploitation of workers, which I'll absolutely get to, but most notably was BuzzFeed's attempt to basically hold their producers hostage. What do I mean? Well, it all centers around what I would call the BuzzFeed paradox: where a corporation concerned about shareholders simply cannot build a strong ensemble on YouTube because corporations want control, and relying on an ensemble specifically requires you to give that up. The fans are going to grow more and more attached to the faces of your channel. So, you're going to have to go to greater lengths in order to keep them. Because with content creation, people grow attached to faces, not brands. So, if every 6 months you're cycling in a new cast, gaining any kind of momentum is going to be a herculean task.
When you break down content, it's either a format or it's personality, and the personality gets audience loyalty. It's it's it's it's a hook in the wall. It's the thing that people relate to. I like that host. I like their style. But the format is the thing that gives longevity and and can live on beyond that personality. Right? This is a problem because the corporate structure inherently encourages keeping as much of the money for profits as possible. And quite frankly, they didn't want to pay us enough.
"Not to mention the fact that disgruntled employees would now be public figures with the ability to provide the company with terrible PR."
"I'm a former Mr. Beast employee, and today I am alleging that the company uh rigged videos and uh did illegal lotteries and sold fake signatures. I I would consider that fraud. Okay, thank you. Enjoy the video."
And none of that accounts for the talent becoming famous enough to just leave.
"He didn't want anyone to get more popular or have more of a a way out necessarily like, oh, I'm doing my Twitch thing on the side. Don't do that cuz you could get famous and leave and talk about me negatively." Like, if you have millions of fans but are only making five figures, why wouldn't you strike out on your own if you can get hundreds of thousands of those people to follow you and allow you to make possibly more money?
All of this means that it's within a YouTube channel's best interest to do everything possible to keep talent on board for as long as possible. And there are two ways to approach this goal. The first is to provide them with the pros of operating a large YouTube channel like exposure, networking opportunities, a decent income, fame if they're into it, while shielding them from the cons: the endlessly long hours, a level of commitment that can impact relationships or other priorities.
"How did what you were doing with meal time get so involved that you couldn't get on a relationship?" "I would be going and editing late night and the guys would be there, but her presence wasn't nec because she didn't get along with some of the guys. It wasn't necessarily conducive to the creation and the creativity and the stress that comes with the lack of certainty."
And if this sounds familiar, it's because, yeah, this is largely the same as running a business in almost any industry. If the foreman everyone loves feels like he's doing the work of running the company without the compensation, why wouldn't they go and start their own if the clients and crew would follow? So, for keeping talent happy, some like Smosh and Dropout would eventually deploy a strategic blend of full-time and contract/freelance workers. And for talent in particular, they usually act in a contract role where they show up every now and then when needed for shooting, and they have almost no obligations otherwise. This empowers them to build careers outside of the YouTube channel. And you know what? Some of their cast have gone on to become successful enough to likely not even need to work with them anymore. Like Jeremy Colehan on SNL, Damen Hos the famous voice actor, Siobhan Thomas who writes for Rick and Morty, Lou Wilson the announcer for Jimmy Kimmel, Brennan Lee Mulligan who is now the host of Critical Role for this campaign, and Shane Top who made over 70 episodes on the Goldbergs. And not only did those opportunities arise during their time with Smosh or Dropout, but every single one of those names is still heavily involved with their respective productions. In fact, Smosh still has their entire original expanded ensemble, at least for the main channels, heavily involved over a decade later. And while, yes, this route leaves the possibility of your talent revolting against you, said talent all seem happy enough to not want to cause problems for productions that did right by them, it's a good example of how making kindness just a bit more of a priority and profit just a bit less of one can foster the loyalty needed to sustain what I think are some of the most well-liked ensemble cast online.
But BuzzFeed opted for the other approach, and it's one that, well, it has more of a mixed result because when the Buzzfeed paradox finally came to a head, they chose to respond with less diplomacy. You see, BuzzFeed video wanted to force loyalty by taking an incredibly tight grip on their talent's careers, present and future. This started with having producers sign a non-compete clause that looked like what you might find in other industries, which to some extent is pretty reasonable. You don't want company secrets going to direct competition. Though, it is worth noting that it's pretty reasonable from the perspective of the company, as non-compete clauses are controversial across industries specifically for being anti-worker. A non-compete is a binding agreement that follows a worker after they leave their job by preventing that person from seeking new employment or starting a business within the same field. And according to the Federal Trade Commission, it's costing American workers big time, about $300 billion each year. And in the case of BuzzFeed, it was for 3 months after their employment ended. But that's the thing, these usually refer to direct competition. That way, you can't just work for a company, learn all their secrets, and then give them to someone in a position to put them out of business.
But BuzzFeed decided to enforce their non-compete clause by including any form of media production where, basically, the talent was not allowed to pursue acting gigs, filmmaking, or anything else in the media space while keeping their jobs at BuzzFeed.
"Where they own all your intellectual property. You're not allowed to do any projects outside of BuzzFeed." "You're not allowed to collaborate with people or have outside projects." "I feel that if Buzzfeed doesn't handpick you to have x amount of power, they're going to get mad if you start to get power." So, with some creators, specifically Gabby and Allison, for example, they were put in a weird position where they were told, "You can't make videos outside of BuzzFeed if you want to work for BuzzFeed," or there was some catch-22 about it. So, they ended up leaving BuzzFeed. And then for other employees, they were let go for doing outside work. Like someone else who was in the same power position as me was working on a movie project, not even in the state, and couldn't tell anyone about it because of the fear of losing their job.
And by the way, doing that is the norm in the industry. In any artistic discipline, it's common for people to find a job that allows them to use their skills to make a living in any way, then on the side work on passion projects that can open doors to opportunities more directly relevant to their professional goals. In the case of Buzzfeed, this went so far that in 2016, they fired two of their recognizable faces for acting in a miniseries and doubled down on doing so. To quote their then president, ZF Frank, "We're investing heavily in you and we do ask for a real commitment in return. Concretely, this means that the work you do while you're on BuzzFeed staff belongs to BuzzFeed and that you can't work for other productions without our permission. Being a part of BuzzFeed is a full-time job with many benefits and opportunities. And as with any full-time job, you are expected to be fully committed to your work and collaborating with your colleagues while you are here." Notice he specifies that it's not the work you make with BuzzFeed that they claim ownership. No, it's any work that you do, even in your free time, while on their payroll. Where do you draw the line with that? Would Buzzfeed own the home movies you shoot of your kids? Using this logic to justify those firings, it would be like me saying that Avengers Endgame acts as competition to my YouTube channel. I mean, sure, you can only watch one of us at a given moment, but to call that competition would be me operating under bad faith.
But BuzzFeed was under a lot of pressure because not only did other big names leave out of fear for BuzzFeed's attempts at hijacking their careers, "We are Gabby and Allison from Just Between Us," there was some pushback about the fact that we had our own channel and that began to scare me where I was like, "Well, do I give them my best ideas later in life? I may want to use those ideas for something and I won't be able to." And that started worrying me more and more. And the idea of them owning anything to do with Just Between Us started worrying me more and more.
But others were already eyeing the exit. So I think firing those two producers was BuzzFeed trying for a power move to keep the rest in line. Because these producers, they all knew firsthand how almost impossible it is to break into entertainment. Buzzfeed wanted to prevent them from considering any possible options they might have available. I mean, are you really going to try striking out as an independent filmmaker if it requires you to give up one of the only stable incomes in this industry? Like, I say this not trying to minimize abuse, and I'm not a psychologist, but it feels like Buzzfeed was deploying every tactic I've heard of abusers relying on, like, make your victim feel helpless without you. Brainwash them into being grateful for your cruelty. Isolate them if they ever leave you. Do everything you can to take away the idea of a future without you. And keep them under a level of constantly elevated stress so that they never have the time to reflect on if this is even what they want.
But it had the opposite effect and backfired massively. From 2015 to 2017, major players started leaving specifically because of how Buzzfeed was acting. Of course, there were some other things which a lot of people have covered. They own all your intellectual property. You're not allowed to do any projects outside of BuzzFeed, the growing integration of ads and move away from scripted content. Also, they fired one of my best friends and collaborators like the duo Gabe Dunn and Allison Raskin, Sophia Nygard, and Michelle Care. All of whom went on to do quite well for themselves on their own corners of YouTube. Even ZFrank's statement, in my opinion, was either wildly deceptive or shockingly out of touch. I feel like he was trying to equate BuzzFeed producers to a typical 9-to-5 so that the working man would rally against the victims here simply for having desirable jobs. Kind of like the dirty tricks studios pulled during strikes to make writers or actors seem like entitled babies instead of, you know, the billionaires.
"There's a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic. And they are adding to a set of challenges that this business is already facing that is quite frankly very disruptive. So they're not being realistic. Dangerous. No, they're not." "Why not?" "I can't I can't I can't answer that question. It is and has been a great business for all of these people and it will continue to be even through disruptive times. It will have a it will have a very very damaging effect on the whole business and unfortunately there's huge collateral damage in the industry to people who are you know who are support services. I could go on and on. It will affect the economy of you know different regions even because of just the sheer size of the business. It's a shame. It is really a shame."
But it's a bad-faith comparison in my opinion. You could start a side hustle at really any job. It's not until it affects that 9-to-5 that most workplaces care. Any exception to that would be almost universally agreed upon as stemming from controlling management. Imagine a construction worker finding out that his boss has laid claim to the treehouse they spent the weekend making for their kid. That's the statement that ZFrank was really making. Unless my reading comprehension needs some serious work.
And that's only the first issue. You see, these producers weren't just hired because they'd be great YouTubers in theory. They were basically acting as YouTubers. I mean, for talent, you would generally expect the expectations to be acting as talent. Or maybe for a hybrid role like this, a 40-hour work week where the more taxing work is offloaded to keep the faces of the company happy. But instead, these people required to be full-on personalities with active social media presences that they didn't own.
"A lot of you guys might know how much I love talking to you guys on social media, but I was never allowed to talk to you guys on YouTube. So, if there was a comment that I really loved or something I thought was really funny in the comments, I couldn't say that I liked it. And if there was a question or a misconception, I couldn't clarify anything."
"Make appearances on camera for basically collabs. During my internship, I appeared in probably just as many Buzzfeed videos as anyone else. I got tapped for everything because I had a few good videos and you got to impress the other employees. So, you never want to turn people down. And because I got tapped so much, my work time to cut my own videos was like a fraction of the other people people's time. I was always on camera. Always on camera. Actually produced the videos both in terms of logistics and actual production."
"Many people think that we're just actors, but we're actually also writers, producers, directors, editors. We essentially do everything from top to bottom on a shoot and work incredibly intense hours." "As a [ __ ] PA. I was there from 7 in the morning to 2:00 at night on a Friday. Bro, when I recorded those overtime hours, Ned told me that I needed to clear overtime beforehand and it blindsided me. How would I clear the overtime beforehand? I was a PA on a set. What? You want me toinging walk off set?" All while ensuring that not a scrap of resource goes to waste on a video that failed to go viral. They were effectively expected to dedicate their lives to this gig with fairly little support or room for failure. It's the kind of dedication that you'd be crazy to expect from someone not directly reaping the benefits of this labor.
And those are just the through lines. Plenty of other individual issues have been raised by alumni reflecting on their time at BuzzFeed. The implication is that Buzzfeed didn't want you to claim overtime and you would hurt yourself in the competitive element of the internship if you claimed overtime.
"But she felt pressured to use uh to use her own sexual assault as a story for a video when it was like she had to because they were like, 'You have to make this personal or it's not going to do well.'" So, the lack of transparency between BuzzFeed and you guys kind of made me both not able to take credit for the work that I did, but also made me overly accountable for decisions that were made in other parts of the company that I had nothing to do with.
But, I mean, all right, let's face it, that's just working in entertainment, right? You get paid far less than you generate. You work excruciating hours that take away from other parts of your life and are expected to be perfect regardless of how feasible said perfection is. I mean, isn't that where the idea of paying your dues to the industry comes from? Though, I'm I'm sorry. It's just the draconian management, the impossible expectations and pressure. This this all sounds like really familiar, doesn't it? At least maybe to fans of Smosh.
Because it just so happens that Buzzfeed wasn't the first to make these mistakes. And how badly Defy Media bungled Smosh should have been a clear warning sign to BuzzFeed that correction was necessary. So much so that it makes their ultimate failure to adjust all the more damning. Though, what do I mean?
"Sure, I I'll work 80 to 100 hours a week working on this thing without any extra pay because it's building toward something bigger. But that destroyed my mental health. It destroyed my relationships. Uh I don't think that I really talked to my parents during that time. It was just smosh, eat, and that was it. And occasionally kiss a girlfriend. Yes. When she wasn't angry at me because I spent 80 hours working on smosh and not paying any attention. Yes."
After Smosh founders Ian Hox and Anthony Padilla sold Smosh to what would become Defy Media, they described facing an almost identical environment to these Buzzfeed producers where they had to dedicate their lives to a business that could have been but wasn't theirs and were expected to achieve perfection. All while having no choice but to watch moments of incompetent leadership leading to losses for the company and even their personal reputations.
"We just needed better leadership. We needed a company that was that was actually behind us. Yeah. Well, it seemed to hold us back sometimes in terms of relationships with other YouTubers and companies." "I have no idea where all that money went that the company was making, which I also just read had millions of dollars invested into it last year and now it's gone. Where did all that money go? You know, I created this thing with my buddy and we should kind of be consulted about these things, but it was just a company, nothing more than that and I was nothing more than an employee."
They just saw that some other YouTuber had started a Kickstarter to raise money and they're like, "Oo, you can do that, too. Get some money from people." There was no idea for that game. They were just like, "Put your face and reputation on the line. Beg people for for money for a game that has no concept whatsoever, and we'll just figure it out later. Let's just see how much we could raise."
And wouldn't you know, Defy was also trying to restrict their ability to do anything without Defy also making money from it. And this even included going out of their way to prevent Anthony from being able to join the Screen Actors Guild. And things got so severe for Ian and Anthony that not only did it cause a fracture within their lifelong friendship.
"I'm not sure why, but something changed. I feel our best friendship ended around 2009 and a resentment started growing between us." It actually caused the founder of the original Smosh website to leave. "I'm leaving Smosh." In favor of starting his own channel. So, if this environment was enough to chase away someone with that much history with the company, imagine how employees would react.
So, yeah, by 2017, Buzzfeed Video was bleeding talent. But luckily, they still retained their biggest money makers, the Try Guys and the Trio that later became Watcher, not to mention solo acts like Quinta Brunson that also brought a lot to the table for BuzzFeed. But of course, they can't start giving the workers more money. No, no, no, no. So despite the fact that they still had plenty of room to course correct and save the sinking ship, BuzzFeed opted to follow the patterns of abusers even further, where instead of saying, "We need to re-evaluate our behavior if we hope to maintain stronger relationships in the future," they just arrived to the conclusion that the issue was that they weren't controlling enough. Thus came the power grab that broke the brand irreversibly.
"They had done this stupid contract that I was refusing to sign that they had tricked, I I feel like tricked the entire company into signing." "It basically was like, 'We own your likeness in any way we wanted.'" "Said, 'We would own your life story.'"
Yes. From that description, it sounds like BuzzFeed video was trying to ensure that once you're on their payroll, you lose any ability to form your own career in media because it now belongs to them. Literal diva, I made you logic. Leaving was now a simple matter of self-preservation for anyone with any ambitions in this industry. And BuzzFeed had no one to blame but themselves. So by 2019, those few remaining stars all decided to strike out on their own, both on YouTube and in traditional media.
So yeah, BuzzFeed was prioritizing nothing less than maximizing short-term profits for the corporation. And look, I get that I might come off as a bit of an idealistic, naive tree hugger here, right? I mean, I really just said a business should prioritize kindness. No one could ever make that work. Especially some joke of a YouTube channel like, I don't know, Smosh. Except that wait, one of the original Smosh pin editions, Shane has become the primary face of the brand, even more so than the founders. And I mean, just look at some of the ways that Shane drives so much of Smosh's revenue. Their biggest money maker is likely just a podcast where he reads Reddit stories with guests, as well as the podcast he co-hosts with Amanda Lehon, KTO. And like, just think about it. There's really nothing about that content that Shane couldn't do on his own, especially since his wife Courtney Miller is also one of the most popular cast members. Yet, after a decade, not only are they both still at Smosh, but they're two of the only cast members employed full-time. But either way, Smosh shows that looking after your talent and being willing to meet them in the middle as needed leads to the kind of stability to actually build a foundation for a YouTube channel.
And Dropout has made similar moves with keeping their most popular star, Brennan Lee Mulligan. Remember how crazy Buzzfeed's non-compete clause was? Well, one of Dropout's biggest shows, Dimension 20, has one primary competitor in Critical Role. Yet, not only does the face of the show, Matt Mercer, frequently appear on Dropout, but Brennan Lee Mulligan is writing, hosting, and producing an entire campaign, basically a season for Critical Role with Dropout's blessing.
"Hey gang, this is so exciting." And what do you know? Alumni from decades ago in the company's history are still rooting for their success. Like these companies go against everything in Buzzfeed Video's approach, and yet they're the ones still on the up and up. BuzzFeed was so comfortable with the previous control that broadcasters had over their talent that they were in complete denial on how the internet was able to wrestle power away from suits at the top. Though, side note, I am now imagining Ian Heck's kicking in the door of Nintendo to declare that he now owns a part of Fire Emblem because Damian voices a protagonist. It sounds pretty stupid when you put it like that, right?
So, when the Watcher trio finally left in 2019, they did so a bit less abruptly than many other producers, opting for somewhat of a transition period where they phased out their content on BuzzFeed video while starting their own channels.
"Say it as if like you're saying there's a fire." "IT'S JANUARY 10TH. IT'S TIME FOR WATCHER WEEKLY." Which, between that and allowing the Try Guys to maintain their branding, "because literally until the night before we didn't know if we were going to be the Try Guys, hence all of the paperwork about what company name we would have," does show BuzzFeed at least trying to take some of these lessons to heart after burning bridges with so many other producers. And for a time, Watcher was enough to keep the BuzzFeed video channel alive as they were still pulling millions of views. But as soon as they left, so did the last remnants of the audience. I mean, three uploads later and BuzzFeed couldn't even crack 10,000 views. And it marked this weird limbo period for BuzzFeed where it seemed like they just couldn't decide where their future could lie.
Though, remember that shift I've talked about where YouTube has moved from showcasing personalities to primarily formats?
"So, yeah, there's a huge amount of subjectivity around how much does how much does the owner of the channel or the personality on the channel matter, right? Uh with a personality based channel, it's everything. and then you work into these formats and maybe it doesn't matter as much, right?"
Well, for BuzzFeed, this was actually great. They suck at maintaining relationships with talent, and Tasty proved that for them, formats where you could swap out whoever is on camera would be far more sustainable in a corporate structure. So during their weird limbo, before the relaunch, but after losing their talent, BuzzFeed focused on trying to capitalize on this shift, largely uploading brief clips from celebrities dropping by while on whatever press tours since those don't require sustained relationships.
"Hello, I'm Lucy Hail." "And I'm Greg Best." "And we are going to attempt to draw our dogs from memory." "I'm Hugh Jackman." "He is Hugh Jackman. I'm Ryan Reynolds." "And I'm known as a dog whisperer." "He is. Yeah. This is Buzzfeed, which is the premier destination for puppies on the internet. And uh we're here to harvest, sorry, play with puppies."
And much like with Tasty, not having to worry about sustaining personalities meant that the Buzzfeed Celeb channel actually continued to do pretty well. It was a major shift for the channel, one that I cannot stress enough was entirely avoidable. As a result, the views were incredibly volatile, and those lifestyle videos they decided were no longer feasible, that had nothing to do with the audience growing bored of it. Remember, Buzzfeed alumni by and large have gone on to make very similar lifestyle content after their departures.
"Hello friends, and welcome to another video. This week, I'm going to be testing cheap versus expensive overnight trains in Japan." The Try Guys are even a variety channel still. Yet throughout the 2020s, almost every channel you'd associate with the 2010s BuzzFeed boom was inactive or just being half-assed with low-effort content that would get very little attention. So to rectify this, they've decided to embark on a relaunch of BuzzFeed video in September of 2025, hoping to recapture the magic that they had during their golden era. But what has that looked like and can they actually pull it off? Well, it's complicated.
I think my main thought is that it isn't going to work. But if someone had to do a relaunch of Buzzfeed video, I'm not sure how they could do much better. Like what they're trying to do, I can't think of any precedent for where a YouTube channel goes mostly under because the views fell off. They came back years later as a variety channel, but with a cast that features none of the fan favorites from before. Usually, this kind of move will take advantage of existing momentum to increase it exponentially. So, how are they addressing these challenges?
Well, they decided to respond to their limited cast by heavily leaning on their alumni. Tons of fan favorites from the glory days have been making appearances on the channels in videos of the nostalgia bait variety.
"Hi, I'm Chris." "Hey, I'm Ryan." "Hi, I'm Zach. And today we're going to answer some questions and play with some puppies. Puppies. How does it feel to be back at the feed?" "It feels great."
But it's kind of a catch-22. I mean, sure, those videos do make up some of their most viewed uploads post-relaunch, but a lot of them also underperformed, either because they're recruiting faces who were popular on other BuzzFeed channels, or they just aren't doing good video ideas, like doing 2016 makeup for a week in 2026.
"Is it weird being back on BuzzFeed?" "It's been a long time." "Sophia, what is your relationship like with 2016 style makeup?" "I'm not the target audience, but like, it's not exactly a one-of-a-kind idea, you know?" And that's not any disrespect to Sophia because she clearly has the skill to make great video concepts, but if she was the one to come up with this one, then I think it's safe to say she's keeping her best ideas close to the chest for her own channel. Because why would she go out of her way to give the win to a company that she likely has little goodwill towards? Or even worse, BuzzFeed came up with that idea for her. Still not learning that they need to use their talent. And using nostalgia bait comes with a quick end date for something like this. At least in my opinion, you're largely recruiting creators still creating the same type of content, just at a slightly different place. There's a lot less appeal there than a reunion or even a rewatch podcast where you're being offered something entirely new.
And that's not their only issue. Because if I'm being honest, the output of this relaunch is so sloppy and unfocused for two main reasons. The first is that it feels like Jojo Siwa's rebrand, where if you didn't tell me this was supposed to be a relaunch, I wouldn't think that it was because it's functionally no different than before.
"I used to be Rainbow Sparkles and now I'm Black Sparkles." Same type of content and thumbnails. There was just a monthslong hiatus before doing the same thing, but with a slightly different coat of paint. And I guess they're leaning more on lifestyle content again. But also, they're still running this channel like a corporation would, where it feels like they try something maybe twice and then decide it didn't work, so on to the next idea. Like two videos about former creators reflecting on why they left YouTube. That's a great concept, and it could be a way to rely on formats instead of personalities. Oh, wait. They used the concept twice before moving on and never doing it again. Couldn't bother experimenting with runtime or the types of guests? No. Two strikes and you're out. All right, fine. Here are a couple attempts at a storytime format. Oh, second one underperformed. Now wine experts are doing a tasting. A few videos about digital boyfriends. Nope. Time to move on to videos about being a mom, which, okay, that's actually a continuation of a previously successful series. And look at that. These are actually pretty consistent views. Finally, a step in the right direction. And I'm just kidding. Who wants another taste test and some reaction videos? Okay, now how about one about Rhett syndrome with this as the thumbnail? I'll be honest, I don't know what Rhett syndrome is. I'm sure it could make for an interesting watch, but usually your thumbnail would inform me of the topic instead of someone clearly forgetting to upload any thumbnail. Mind you, the standard practice now is to make at least three custom thumbnails that YouTube can test against each other via an A/B test. Hm. I I wonder what creators would say about this kind of inconsistency from a variety channel. It's not like they've been calling out why this is an issue for like a decade, right?
"And here's the thing, too. Like, say somebody saw Wo Nature Show and they're like, 'Oh my god, I love this. Subscribe.' And then the next day they're like, 'What is this 1-hour song machine? I'm not into this music show. Wo, what is this science show? This isn't what I subscribed for.'" "And so, they wanted a show of like every genre on one YouTube channel or every personality. That's You were kind of right, but that's stretched this channel apart. And it was all so different that it wasn't getting good views because it wasn't like a consistent place and it was it was like, what do you come to this channel for?"
Variety channels are hard to pull off these days on a YouTube that wants consistency and predictability. This means that said variety channels generally need a large bulk of their content to fall under a core series and then supplement it with content that would appeal to the same demographic, not whatever this is supposed to be. The issue is that despite trying to maintain better relationships with their talent, Buzzfeed still isn't grasping the current era of YouTube. I think they focus so much on the fact that formats are currently king that they've completely overlooked that in the vast majority of cases, said formats require time and personalities for people to care about. You have to invest your resources into content before you can expect anyone to invest their time watching it. And at a certain point early on, we recognize the value of having a format that's personality-driven. Because when you break down content, it's either a format or it's personality. And the personality gets audience loyalty. I mean, solo creators can find a format that works only for it to take years to either get good enough at producing it for people to notice or just for the algorithm to start highlighting them. Individuals take risks and stick with them long enough to see them through because most of them have nowhere to go but up. It took years for my deep dive commentary to transition into the video essays that brought my channel to a far more sustainable place. But a YouTube channel with businessmen at the helm is already at a disadvantage since they think in terms of this quarter, not the next couple of years, which is how I feel a YouTuber has to think. And BuzzFeed video, I mean, it's not even the whole company, but like maybe a subsidiary of a subsidiary. So if at the top Buzzfeed video is just a red line that loses money, the corporation won't invest further into it. But not investing further into it is going to make it so it lacks any real focus since they jump to new formats before properly seeing if their current one has legs to stand on. I mean, ironically, a modified version of their previous color-coded branding might actually be more feasible now since they at least had a core theme. Just find a few faces you treat very well, come up with your money-maker series for a given niche, and then find the supplemental variety content that that series can uplift. But that takes time and resources, not to mention talented people who want to work at BuzzFeed. But I don't think there's any reason for serious media professionals to work with them long-term. Both because of the reputation of the brand, but also the reputation of the management. Hell, as someone in media production, if you ever see me as a Buzzfeed video producer, you can safely assume that Nintendo Life, Dropout, NBC, Smosh, and even the homeless guy down the street that offered me a hundred bucks to film him for 15 minutes, no questions asked, have all turned me down. And you know something, everything I'm talking about here, it comes with risk. But how do you expect to survive in perhaps the most competitive industry ever if you jump from idea to idea with no risk or strategic throughline?
And guess what? They might already be packing it in because as I was getting ready to release this video, I found out that they sold the channel that was once Buzzfeed Yellow. So, they're already starting to offload this whole property. Though, I mentioned all of this being a good thing. And it's because an optimistic way to look at this is that at least as of 2026, corporations still can't outperform creative and talented individuals just by throwing money around, which is actually pretty important given how generative AI threatens to deliver YouTube to suits on a silver platter. Then again, I am speaking as a small creator who, let's be honest, if I don't establish a larger core audience before the AI takeover of YouTube, then I am probably gonna be out of a job. So, I don't know. Maybe all of this is just a Coke disguised as an essay. Bye.