According to an internal BuzzFeed memo shared with Reclaim The Net, Facebook is partnering with BuzzFeed to fund two brand new shows on Facebook’s Watch platform.
The memo, sent by BuzzFeed’s editor-in-chief Ben Smith to staff yesterday evening, reveals the extent of the new content that Facebook will be funding.
The first of the two shows is called “Did You See This?” and will launch in September. Various BuzzFeed reporters and pop culture commentators will be joining in on the show. The show is a daily news format that involves “using the Facebook Messenger feature in BuzzFeed’s fan-favorite video format,” said Ben Smith, in the memo.
The second show is called “That Literally Happened” – however, this show is a weekly show, not daily. The show “brings nostalgia and historical curiosity to life through the lens of Gen Y and Gen Next-ers learning about the news, alongside the generations who lived through it,” according to the memo. It too will begin in September and is to be hosted by Hayes Brown of BuzzFeed News.
BuzzFeed, that was once the scrappy outsider that made its rise to the top by means of clickbait headlines and banal content, has more recently been considered more part of the establishment as it’s become more mainstream.
Facebook somewhat turning its back on independent creators on its platform and establishing ties with more mainstream and “authoritative” media outlets, is something that seems to be forming part of Facebook’s more recent strategy of sticking with orthodox and brand-safe safe content.
After severely cutting the reach on everyone’s Facebook Pages, the company now seems to want to stick to more conventional methods of getting content for its audience.
We recently announced that Facebook will be partnering with and funding new CNN shows on its platform, expanding on the ties between the two companies.
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