Yet another article about Semafor

But I think this one is actually worth reading, since it dives deep into its two cofounders’ origin stories to really dissect their philosophical differences with the modern day mainstream media:

BuzzFeed, [Ben Smith] had realized, had a foundational problem. When Peretti had hired him to build a news team, they’d never established a parallel advertising team focused on monetizing it. Peretti was, as much as Ben, a “content guy,” with a genius for virality. He wasn’t a business guy. The company’s advertising team was focused on meeting sales targets, and it was far easier to close deals with ads that appeared beside cute cats than political investigations.

“Ben was just kicking the tires on, like, ‘Well, how would you make money on news here? And what revenue streams are better?’ It was just a kind of a casual conversation, as friends do, giving each other advice on the industry.” Justin [Smith] saw in Ben someone who had been successful cultivating an audience. But commercial success had proved elusive because, as Justin put it, “he didn’t have a thought partner to help him monetize BuzzFeed News.”