Exclusive: Jonah Peretti explains why he sold BuzzFeed

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. Today, I’m talking with Jonah Peretti, who is, technically, the CEO of BuzzFeed — although that will be coming to an end very soon. Just days before we spoke, Jonah agreed to sell 52 percent of BuzzFeed for a total of $120 million to Byron Allen, who owns The Weather Channel, a number of broadcast stations, and several other websites. The deal is a bit of a life raft for BuzzFeed — the company was once valued at $1.

6 billion dollars, but just last quarter, the company had told investors it was at risk of running out of cash. Now there’s a new lease on life — and new leadership. As part of the deal, Jonah himself is stepping down as CEO and taking on a new role as president of BuzzFeed AI, and Byron Allen himself will become CEO of BuzzFeed.

Technical Details

  That’s obviously a huge structural and organizational change and a really big decision — prime Decoder bait if there ever was any. And, of course, I’m very interested in what digital media companies are doing to adapt and survive in an information landscape dominated by algorithmic social platforms. Verge subscribers, don’t forget you get exclusive access to ad-free Decoder wherever you get your podcasts.

You can sign up here. After all, I’ve been saying for a long time now that the original sin of digital media was Jonah and BuzzFeed betting they could so consistently go viral that platforms like Facebook would pay them for content — the way cable companies pay carriage fees for channels like ESPN. This was the big bet for a lot of companies all chasing BuzzFeed’s influence and valuation, and it’s mostly all come crashing down.

So I really wanted to know if Jonah had reflected on that and how he saw the work of building audiences and influence now. I also really wanted to talk to him about his new role leading AI. In the press release announcing the sale, Byron Allen says BuzzFeed will now compete with YouTube through the power of AI.

Industry Implications

That’s quite an ambition, and I was very curious about what it specifically means. Jonah is also making lots of games and apps with AI, and we talked about some of them, including his new hybrid of a meme generator and social network, BFIsland. Of course, we also talked about where it all went wrong and what Jonah might have done differently.

There’s a lot going on in this one, and Jonah was pretty open about it all. But I’m still not sure I know what’s going on with that YouTube plan. Okay: Jonah Peretti, still — for the moment — CEO of BuzzFeed.

Here we go This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Jonah Peretti, you’re the co-founder, and as of today, still technically the CEO of BuzzFeed. Thanks for having me.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.