Jeff Zucker Disses Buzzfeed and Vice
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Variety wrote a glowing piece about CNN's Jeff Zucker and how he has brought ratings back to CNN.
Of course, one could argue, that Zucker has ditched news coverage to get those ratings, but one interesting part was about online news.
Zucker loved touting the fact that CNN is not only getting higher ratings on TV, but they are doing it online as well.
The CNN boss also took a swipe at both Buzzfeed and Vice.
From Variety:
TV performance is just part of the company’s success story. Its digital unit is also formidable, made stronger by the inceased investment in journalists and technology. According to comScore, CNN Digital landed 116 million unique visitors in June, topping all other news outlets, including Yahoo News (100 million), BuzzFeed (78 million), and The New York Times (75 million). That same month, CNN saw 292 million video starts, more than any other news site. “When Jeff talks about CNN, he doesn’t talk about it as a television network,” says Andrew Morse, the general manager of CNN Digital Worldwide. “He talks about it as a 21st-century media company.”
The online news landscape is crowded. But Zucker doesn’t view the new players in the field as competitors. “I don’t think Vice and BuzzFeed are legitimate news organizations,” he says. What would he call them? “They are,” he says with a mischievous grin, “native advertising shops. We crush both of them. They are not even in our same class.”
