‘It’s Been Painful’: What Jonah Peretti Says Went Wrong at BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed’s CEO once proclaimed that consolidation was the best way for digital media companies to fight back against the big tech platforms. In an interview though, he discusses how BuzzFeed’s biggest deal blew up in its face.
In late 2021, Jonah Peretti, CEO of BuzzFeed, logged onto a virtual all-hands meeting to tell the staffers of Complex—a publication BuzzFeed was then in the process of acquiring—how much the media brand meant to him.
In an effort to connect with Complex’s coverage of sneaker culture, Peretti recalled a prank he had pulled as a graduate student in 2001 in which he tried unsuccessfully to get Nike to embroider “sweatshop” on a pair of shoes he had ordered online. He emphasized his affection for the print edition of Complex magazine, and he told staffers about his journey thumbing through back editions in the magazine’s archives in preparation for the meeting.
Complex executives got a funny feeling from how that meeting went down, according to one former executive who was there. The print magazine Peretti praised had ceased publication in 2016. They noticed he had little to say about Complex’s current properties, including a popular YouTube series called “Hot Ones” in which celebrities answered softball questions while eating progressively spicier chicken wings. The omission made some staffers wonder whether Peretti knew what he was about to buy.