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BuzzFeed’s great leap into the future of digital media (hopefully): The Media Roundup

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The future of digital media (according to BuzzFeed)

So all the manoeuvring and repositioning of BuzzFeed and its various properties has led to this. The long-awaited public offering of BuzzFeed is upon us. As Sarah Scire writes for Nieman Lab, that affords us a rare chance to peek behind the curtain at the trailblazing digital publisher, to see what it sees as its opportunities for growth and, perhaps more importantly, what it sees as its weak spots.

This paragraph in particular lays bare the scale of its ambition: “BuzzFeed plans to go public at an estimated valuation of $1.5 billion and predicts double-digit growth in multiple revenue buckets. The digital media company’s advertising revenue, for example, grew 13% in 2019 and 2020. But BuzzFeed management projects ad revenue to grow by 32% in 2021 and then at least 20% every year after that.”

A tall order, considering that the industry-wide growth has been estimated around 7% for 2021. Even with all the acquisitions it’s made to shore up its e-commerce revenue, there are real questions about whether BuzzFeed can continue to outpace the industry by that much.

Danish media club together to make US tech giants pay for news

This one’s behind the FT paywall, but for those of you without a subscription the top line is that the ongoing efforts across Europe to force the Duopoly to “pay for news” has gained yet more traction. This time it’s Denmark’s media houses that feel there’s strength in numbers.

What the women running newsrooms think about social media harassment

A really interesting one here from Politico, especially in light of the news we included yesterday about Reach hiring an online safety editor to safeguard its journalists online. There’s tons more in there, too, from how newsrooms are faring post-Trump to where we are on the road to better representation. Good read.

GB News viewing figures: Week two update as ratings plummet amid ‘establishment’ rivalry

This might be the first time we’ve linked to the Daily Express on a Media Roundup! But it’s worth it to provide a bit of context for why Andrew Neil has taken a ‘bit of a break’ from the channel only two weeks after launch – after a strong start, the reported viewer numbers are terrible.

This content originally appeared in The Media Roundup, a daily newsletter from Media Voices. Subscribe here: