Why BuzzFeed just reorganized into two new businesses

BuzzFeed — the pioneer of internet listicles, trailblazer of the ‘bored at work’ network and digital media powerhouse — is reorganizing.

This week, the company announced it will be splitting into two new overarching departments: BuzzFeed News and BuzzFeed Entertainment Group. BuzzFeed Entertainment Group will encompass all entertainment content and will be led by the president of BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, Ze Frank. BuzzFeed News will serve as the company’s journalistic arm and will be led by editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, Ben Smith.

Ultimately, the restructuring aims to bring video content to the core of the company.

“In this new structure, video won't be the job of just one department,” wrote BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti in a memo to the company’s employees, which BuzzFeed shared with Built In. “Having a single ‘video department’ in 2016 makes about as much sense as having a ‘mobile department.’ Instead, it will be something we expand and embed across the organization. As digital video becomes ubiquitous, every major initiative at BuzzFeed around the world will find an expression as video, just like everything we do works on mobile and social platforms. Instead of organizing around a format or technology, we will organize our work to take full advantage of many formats and technologies.”

The reorganization will also simplify the company’s structure and make way for growth across the media brand.

"We have ambitious goals for both departments," wrote Peretti. "We have an opportunity to be the leading entertainment company for the mobile, social age. And we are in position to build the the #1 global news brand for a new generation who consume news differently than their parents, but care passionately about what is happening in a quickly-changing world. This structure will allow us to be better at entertainment and better at news. It will also complete our shift to becoming a cross-platform media company, with entertainment and news both living on our site, our apps, and distributed on platforms across the web in multiple native formats."

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