7 Reasons NBCUniversal Wants a Share of BuzzFeed
Big media companies seem to be learning a key lesson when it comes to grabbing those elusive new media Millennials: it never hurts to flash a little cash.
Case in point: the Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, which threw $200 million into Vox Media last week, and another $200 million at BuzzFeed today.
Here are a few reasons why Comcast might want a piece of the company — and a few more why it might not work:
1. Millennials. Duh.
2. “It’s a mass entertainment company that has been suffering an erosion of eyeballs.”
So says independent media analyst Rebecca Lieb.
And we’re talking Millennial eyeballs. Valuable eyeballs.
3. A media company that doesn’t pair up with smart, young kids is basically asking to be roadkill.
Fox has invested in Vice. Verizon has Huff Po and Engaget. Disney bought up Maker Studios.
4. Why exert yourself?
“It’s easier to buy into something that’s already going, then to go to the kitchen and try to cook it up yourself,” said Poynter’s media business analyst Rick Edmonds.
Why not buy the experience of the people who already know the recipe for online/sharable/snackable content?
5. The cool factor.
6. If you are hanging with the cool-kids, their friends might check you out.
Rebecca Leib says NBC might be able to leverage the partnership with Buzzfeed to bring more eyeballs to the Olympics.
7. Money, money, money.
Television advertising models aren’t what they used to be. Buzzfeed and Vox have native advertising down to a science.
Now there are reasons this could go south.
1. If you are NBC, you gotta wonder if you are buying into a bubble? MySpace anyone?
2. If you’re Buzzfeed…think of the optics.
Nothing says lame-o like cozying up with a corporate overlord.
Correction: A previous version of this post misspelled Rebecca Lieb’s name. The text has been corrected.
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