 "CNN, BuzzFeed join hands for YouTube news channel")
Social news site and meme aggregator BuzzFeed is coming together with CNN and YouTube to launch a new online-video channel that will be unveiled later today.
To that effect, BuzzFeed is going to announce “CNN BuzzFeed”, a YouTube channel that will have content coming from CNN, which includes archival as well as current content that will be customised to be shareable over social-media networks.
According to a report by WSJ, the Chief Operating Officer Jon Sterinberg says that they will pump in an “eight-digit sum”, which will be slowly fliter through over a span of two years to build and launch the platform. The platform plans to take on serious news events which will initially be made into a three video-a-week segment for the channel, with scope for more expansion when the platform takes off.
This new platform is a latest move made by BuzzFeed to establish itself as a primary news source among 18-34 year olds, a demographic that most advertisers are keen to reach out to through the Internet. BuzzFeed has also launched a business news site earlier this month, which is aiming to expand its social-media reach to sites including LinkedIn.
BuzzFeed partners with CNN to come up with a new YouTube news channel (image credit: abcnews)
The BuzzFeed-CNN collaboration is perhaps the most wide-ranging alliance that the company has made so far with any other traditional medial company. Although BuzzFeed already manages six YouTube channels, this partnership will help the new site foster greater trust among its potential users. CNN should also profit from this partnership, as it gains leeway into the social news site’s user pool. This is clear, as the content from the BuzzFeed-CNN YouTube channel will appear on the CNN official site as well.
According to the information found so far, the new channel will be using a video format that will be working over an earlier BuzzFeed model that includes features like scroll-through photos and text posts on topics that will be wide in its range.
The advertising revenue model that the new BuzzFeed channel will work on is interesting. Advertisers will now pay BuzzFeed for their content that will be customised for social-network sites like Facebook. This is a clear departure from the banner ads payment model.
For now though, the new channel will be launched without the support of any advertising partners. According to Steinberg, “the more agile way to do it is to launch without letting advertising products dictate editorial content.” Adding to this, he said, “BuzzFeed and CNN will figure out ways to do various ad formats and sponsored content down the road.”
The inaugural effort of the new channel is said to see a collage of news footage from CNN’s archives, which will show “some of the most amazing rescue moments shown on CNN”, ranging from rescue efforts involving miners stranded underground to a marooned crane operator.
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