Can BuzzFeed’s News App Cause a Stir in the Market?
BuzzFeed has quickly cemented its position as of one of the most prominent media companies on the planet and is mostly known for its off the wall articles and quizzes.
However, BuzzFeed also does news. The same website that published “9 Taylor Swift Collaborations We Wish Were Real” also penned “South Carolina Prosecutor Grapples with Racially Charged Killings,” a story on how Scarlett Wilson, the South Carolina prosecutor has to deal prosecuting two of the most high-profile racially charged murder cases in the country.
In a bid to offer its readers easy access to the most recent news, BuzzFeed released a News app in the App Store. The app is designed to present the day’s highlight in a bulleted, easy to understand format.
Stacy-Marie Ishmael is the lead editor for the app and was hired from The Financial Times. To help her is a small team that works alongside the larger team of BuzzFeed’s news division. BuzzFeed boasts a staggering 25 million readers per month.
Ishmael says, “”Everyone on the editorial side of #teamnewsapp is also a part of BuzzFeed News, and that’s a really important point,”. She adds that her team works closely with the breaking news desk, and the major section editors round the clock to ensure that news are delivered as they happen.
The BuzzFeed news app is divided into two windows. The main “Catch Up” feed features BuzzFeed stories as well as other content from sites such as The New York Times and Fusion. The “My Alerts” tab allows the reader to take charge of how the app sends push notifications for the breaking news.
For example, a user may choose to get “major breaking news” or ongoing world news such the Charleston shooting incident or the corruption scandal that rocked FIFA.
Readers can share the news directly to their social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. The app also has relevant tweets and Instagram posts that pop up occasionally to supplement news stories.
Allowing readers access to news through apps is becoming quite popular among publishers. The New York Times recently redesigned its NYT app, using the same concept as the BuzzFeed’s app.
Ishmael notes that the mobile web traffic is immense, and publishers should leverage on it. “We are launching the app because we know that there is a universe of native functionality in operating systems such as Apple’s iOS and Android that are not just available in any browser.”
