The Rise and Fall of Buzzfeed 

Quinta was the Beyonce of Buzzfeed. Thats all.

The whole Watcher situation could have been avoided if they just asked their audience if they'd support a subscription based model.

If I had a nickel for every former group of BuzzFeed employees sitting somberly on a couch I’d have two nickels, which isn’t much but it’s weird it happened twice.

That whole era of buzzfeed’s reign feels very millennial core, very of it’s time. It kinda makes me nostalgic in a way and I’m not even a millennial.

Honestly, recently I have only kept watching Safiya Nygaard on a more regular basis

Buzzfeed’s worst offenses aren’t even known to us, and I’m curious if that’ll even get exposed. Several ex-employees have insinuated that there were problems they can’t discuss for a multitude of reasons, but a lot of them also want as much distance from the company as they can get and are done talking about it all together.

I think Safiya Nygarrd is a interesting case study because she, or she and her husband, are the the only face of her independent content. She seems to have a team, but it also seems to be pretty small, a couple of producers and an editor, and they mostly get mentioned in passing. When the only people whose image and personality you have to manage are you and your spouse, and when you only have to pay a handful of people, it is easier to do things like take a year long break because of burnout, or move across the country to be closer to family. If you have a team, a studio, employees, you can't take a break, because people still need health insurance premiums paid and studio rent is due and you can't move to North Carolina because you have 25 employees here, or your co-star isn't going anywhere. Which is probably why Watcher was looking for steadier income then youtube ad money, because LA is expensive and so are full time professionals at a production company. Staying a one woman show does mean that she isn't beholden to those other people or responsible for them.

Buzzfeed’s real success story is Quinta! From being a side character in their videos to being a Golden Globe and an Emmy winner herself!

The “leaning into the personality” reminds me so much of John Mulaney and his divorce. I feel like everyone loved him bc like Ned he was the “I love my wife” guy and then when the divorce broke, it went downhill

While I’m happy to hear Watcher went back on some of their choices, I can’t help but feel the trust is broken between them and their audience…which is sad, but maybe a good reminder that, at the end of the day, these people are content creators, not our friends.

I've been following the Try Guys since they started all the way in those early BuzzFeed days and I'll say that even though their content has kinda gone in a different direction in the last couple years, it's still pretty consistently entertaining. They're definitely my favorite ex-BuzzFeeders. I feel so proud of how well they were able to bounce back from the scandal.

Gonna be honest, Safiya Nygaard has to be my favourite from Buzzfeed. Her videos are long, well-informed, entertaining due to her many niche interests and relatable references and well-produced whilst also feeling down-to-earth. Try Guys are also still pretty good, despite not having Ned and Eugene around often so they work with people who they also have really good dynamics with

It's so wild how Watcher didn't follow the CollegeHumor/Dropout blueprint. Keep SOME RU-vid content, but keep new or exclusive content on your own streaming service behind a paywall. This seems like a no-brainer, but they really didn't think it through and fumbled the bag on this one.

They say YT is unsustainable, yet spent so much money developing the software for their own streaming service. That must have cost a lot. And the whole 'we didn't want to let anyone go' thing is BS, it's so self serving, if you're bankrupting yourselves to save some employees, then that is an idiotic move, because you'll go bust and your employees will actually be worse off. Let people go if you really need to, then expand if you need as well, its a sad reality, but something many successful companies have done to stay afloat.

steven lim was on many people's shitlist after him killing the watcher advice podcast because of him saying listener asking for advice regarding homophobic relatives should "understand them". and doubled down in emergency follow up episode, saying he has bigoted friends and he won't stop being friends with them because of that... doesn't surprise me most folks blamed him for this mess

Omg such a good video on my old work place! My first job out of college and I thought I hit the jackpot in terms of career moves. Not so much lol. If you have any questions about the company for a future video or just out of curiousity feel free to ask me. I can’t promise I can answer everything but I’d love to offer more insight

Every single time I catch Quinta on TV, like at an award show or an Abbott episode I just get so proud to see her there, I wish her all the best

I forgot Quinta Brunson came out of Buzzfeed!

I relapsed on lady like and worth it videos 2 weeks ago.. this is well-timed

It really was like knowing this whole family of people in its glory days. Similar to what the BA Test Kitchen started to put together a couple years ago. Parasocial content just does so well when you find the right combo of personalities!

just fyi anthony fantano (bald guy with glasses) was never at buzzfeed; he just made a parody 'why i left buzzfeed' that now exists unironically in some compilation videos

The watcher situation was also so strange bc THEY HAVE A PATREON. With a significant amount of members so people that were already paying there would have been screwed on top of the ppl that watched for free. They really should have just pushed their Patreon more

Critikal (aka penguin0) already talked about this, and he had scathing opinions on their choice to do this even as someone who manages many employees himself. He made an great point that they get tons of money from youtube and patreon, so this option just screams pure greed. They already have people supporting their work financially. Now, they just wanna profit off of it more.

Surprised you didn’t touch on Quinta who is arguably the most successful person to come out of buzzfeed

Besides only watching a few shows on Watcher and being someone whos been subbed since they left, I feel like out of all the Buzzfeed Ytubers that left, I only watch Safiya constantly still to this day. Her personality is so addicting and her weird and out there ideas are perfect for me. IDK if I will ever go back to watching Watcher because of the whole drama, prolly will only watch the old buzzfeed unsolved videos and thats it.

IMO, Shane and Ryan's content was better under Buzzfeed. Not saying it was because of Buzzfeed or anything but just saying during that period they were at their best.

i’m surprised you didn’t talk about quinta at all given she’s the most successful of anyone post buzzfeed, esp in separating herself from being an ex buzzfeed employee to being just seen as a comedian, actress, writer, etc

Ned jump scare! Lol

Literallly in middle school I watched solely music videos and buzzfeed on RU-vid. That was it. And maybe Minecraft videos lmao

Just watched the new Watcher video. I never realized how many people don’t like Stephen. And Shane looks like he needs a hug.

Watcher was seemingly trying to emulate Dropout, which put out a million completely original hit shows we never saw when they were CollegeHumor (and they still do upload parts and even sometimes full episodes for free to RU-vid). I think Dropout is an extremely rare case and it’s foolish to bet it all on trying to catch that same bolt of lightning in a bottle when it’s much more common for creators to have success just doing Patreon early uploads

I don't watch Safiya nearly as much anymore but I used to be obsessed. Great video as always!

Still watch safiya, her content never seems rushed, all her subseries are fun to watch, especially because they are so lengthy. I also loved watching quinta’a abbott elementary so much.

Watcher had a week or whatever of basically "Tune in soon for our big announcement" and then the big announcement was "Bend over". Ppl were excited thinking it was a preview or a new show announcement. THAT'S what pisses me off more as a fan than any of it.

you know i keep kaylasays notifs on

Just wondering why didn't you mention Ladylike at all? I watched buzzfeed growing up, I remember that being a big thing

My favorite ex-Buzzfeed channel is Kitchen and Jorn.

Good to see Casual Geographic mentioned. Still think he is the best script writer on the net.

The whole Watcher thing is just wild. Their apology was pretty good as far as addressing what people were upset with and taking accountability and changing the model completely. But I cant help but feel like theyre gonna try something like this again. Bc i just dont buy the whole "its hard to stay relevant to brand sponsors" from a channel that big that also does whole freaking skita for their ads. Like if I was a sponsor I'd be stoked at the skit idea bc their viewers would be way more engaged to watch my ads bc they dont want to miss what their fav funny boy said. Versus most of the creators I see that have different outfits, timestamps, rote script reading, generic ad reads that are easy to skip. Like not only are sponsor ads on these massive videos, but people are actually WATCHING them! Like I cant overstate the production value of their ad reads, like they do whole skits with costumes and sets and multiple actors. Maybe if cost vs revenue on ad reads is an issue they could scale back a couple of those extra features too, you don't necessarily need to go balls to the wall with a whole cast and crew for a 6 minute sketch, like scale back dawgs 😂 idk, they said the right words but their reason still doesnt make sense to me and I think its bc they cant say "our finance business bro crunched some numbers and convinced everyone this would really pop off and hey yeah we wanted that thicc bag so we said yes" lmao

Throw back to 2017 Buzzfeed put up a gay prom in DTLA and that shit slapped! Got to meet a bunch of them and meet adam lambert and the guy from mean girls

Watcher got extremely greedy and thought their viewer base were stupid and would just go along with it. Honestly hugely insulting to their viewers and supporters. Al with smirking grins on their faces. Insane

at least my boy Curly is educating the people on PBS 🍏💚

Don't you drag my man CasualGeographic into this, he puts way more thought into his animal tiktoks than any Buzzfeed listicle ever did

I really liked this! Would definitely love to see more internet history deepdives!! I think we're close to the same age, so I always relate to your internet experiences haha.

Safiya is kinda the only one who got out at a good time and developed her own identity outside of buzzfeed and achieve significant financial success/ retaining internet relevance. Honestly kudos to her, she seems like a lovely person and I wish her and Tyler the best. Edit: besides Quinta ofc

I remember liking LadyLike

If you're doing more internet history, I'd love you to explore the still very interesting but less negative outcome history of College Humor / Dropout. The fact that they were involved in pre-You Tube internet viral video pioneering, the big business near shutdown, and then that they DID make a streaming service and have survived the potential backlash is so fascinating to me.

Onion News predicted their demise

What broke the spell for me was Unsolved. I was an avid Buzzfeed consumer who just so happened to also watch true crime channels to the side, like many others. So when Buzzfeed presented Unsolved, I thought "hey, this is something I'm into, that's great." And then I watched it, and I was horrified. These two guys (forgot the names, my memory for names and faces is awful) were covering very serious cases about real people who had died, and still an essential part of their shtick was that every minute one of them would interrupt the other to crack a joke. I hated that. I hated the disrespect, the lighthearted mood, the jarring humor. And what was worse? Everyone down in the comments loved that. It was their favorite thing and the reason to prefer Unsolved to "any other true crime channel". That's when I realized I was no longer the target audience for this show. I unsubscribed and never looked back.

I loved Gabi and Alison on buzzfeed I don’t think I knew what parasocial relationships were when I was a teen haha but I think buzzfeed def thrived from that and didn’t fully realize it or harness it which is why so many left for solo acts

WOW, you're sooooo close to one hundo thousand. Hope you hit it soon, you certainly deserve it for all the hard work you put into your content!!

Buzzfeed was the worst. They had garbage content in a terrible format. The thing I liked least about them was when they'd film videos, where they'd "investigate" some new product, they'd always send the least qualified individuals from the office, so they could make a joke out ot if. They were literally trying to tear down new ideas by not taking them seriously, and it was so irresponsible of them. They deserved to go out of business.

the paywall gig makes me cry. not with watcher spec, but experiencing the woe with roscoe’s.

Jaiden Animations is awesome. She does a lot of video game content now, but in a cool animation style and she has a great sense of humor.

Oh man, I followed Buzzfeed for WAY too long😭 I never really watched Buzzfeed Video, but I did regularly visit their website. It was my favorite mindless scroll, like when I was sitting in my car or in a waiting room. I actually enjoyed Buzzfeed News quite a bit, definitely more so than all the listicle bs or dumb quizzes. I can’t say I really follow any former BF personalities…occasionally videos from a few of them pop up in my recommends & I’ll watch them, but that’s about it. Two of my favorite RU-vidrs are Stanzi Potenza & Adrian Bliss. Their vids are the ones I regularly go back & rewatch, and laugh every single time. I also love amglimpse, a smaller channel that does amazing deep dives on lesser known scandals & crimes.

Great video! Love your content which is so smart! Highly thoughtful and well written! Thank you!!

Quinta Brunson!❤

would love more content like this!! i know you name dropped sourcefed - that used to be a particular fave of mine i don't see anyone talk about anymore.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

When you said Buzzfeed's content is hosted on several channels you instantly made me feel ancient 😂 Pepperidge Farm remembers when Buzzfeed was a single website which hosted their video content on a single YT channel.

Sometimes I feel like they sold their soul to Buzzfeed and once they tried to free themselves of it they still ended up even more greedy in the end. How sad, I was fully prepared to support these guys.

this video is so well articulated and easy to follow. i really enjoyed your narration, thank you for dis

really well packaged and thoughtful, nice work !

I also miss when the try guys actually tried stuff and were all in the same video. But I understand they can't really do that anymore, I really only watch them without a recipe/instruction, and I'm glad to see they added a rotating cast because the new cast is also really fun.

idk i feel like most of the watcher drama was caused because people have put shane and ryan on a pedestal for years as their parasocial buddies and dont realize that these are just regular guys trying to create content so the second they do anything to skew that view, people were gonna riot. i understand where people are coming from, but i do think it is telling how quickly everyone turned on them after so many years of showing they are decent human beings who do care about their fans. virtually no scandals and yet they have no grace from anyone.

new kayla upload just when i didnt know what to watch 😊😊

Girl almost to 100k? Killing it!

WOW, you're less than 3k away from 100k - I hope you get those subscribers soon!!

this video is how i realized where i recognized the lady from abbot elementary 😭😭

Fuck buzzfeed but are we really pretending buzzfeed was the first media company to do any of this? Those content creators were lucky enough that tech allowed them to actually tell their stories. There’s 100+ years of Hollywood doing all of this and no one could speak out without losing their platform

With the note about the try guys (excluding the Ned thing) is that they want to do different content, they want to explore, dive into more complex themes, and lean into improv comedy. They couldn’t do the same thing forever , and I think it’s great that it has allowed Eugene to write movies and Zack to write sketches, and Keith to join lewburger. The buzzfeed says were almost a decade ago. The try guys, the audience, and thus the content all grew up.

I personally don’t hold any ill will against the ghoul boys, they’ve acknowledged what they said was really out of touch and are gonna continue on RU-vid and I enjoy their content and I personally don’t think they did it out of greed or malice I think they are having trouble with their business, thought it was a good solution, realized it is not, and are doubling back. If they keep making the content I enjoy I’m gonna keep watching them cuz I think they’re great

I’m really happy for Ryan and Shane and how they practically raised unsolved from the dead, at this point they’ve now stepped back from their paywall and it proves they listen to their fans. I grew up with their show playing through my tablet way past my bedtime. So it feels so nostalgic for me getting to watch new material. Like Smosh now that Anthony is back.

penguinz0 made a really good analysis as someone who is a big creator and has a bunch of employees about the amount of money the watcher guys were making, there was NO struggle behind the decision, just greed.

you rock Kayla, excited for the next vid

I'd love more internet history videos, really enjoyed this one :)

so i was really surprised to see anthony fantano included in that “why i left buzzfeed” compilation. for anyone else who was surprised, he was not in buzzfeed. that video is basically a shitpost and he’s just satirizing “why i left buzzfeed” videos. 😂

I also think that Buzzfeed and its successors have monetized the parasocial relationship between creators and viewers in one of the "best" ways. And it's still going strong, especially in the case of The Watcher. I understand that there are all these cool people who played certain characters (who knows which one was how far from reality) from video to video, that the viewers got the impression that they knew them very well, that they were their friend, colleague, etc. And now, after the announcement of the changes in The Watcher, I keep seeing people defending them as if they were their own loved ones: "Oh, no, it's a hundred per cent Stephen's fault, he's the villain of the story", "It's Shane's wife who pushed him to do this, the guys would never have done it on their own". So, like, WTF, we're talking about adults who made a business decision. Whether it's good or bad is a topic for a separate discussion, but to enable their actions just because it's your fave and it differs from your view of them?

I was a cracked kid rather than a buzzfeed kid, so all that was stuff I was aware of at the periphery, but not really in depth at all

I loved this style of video!

Zaid Tabani is one of my favorite RU-vidrs right now, I’ve only known about him for a year and heard about him through Philip Defranco. I don’t follow everything he does cause I’m not as tapped into the fighting game community, but he covers news and makes music, often combining that for his shows. Insanely talented Quinn Curio is a great video essayist, she hadn’t made videos for a while though until she started doing some streams recently which are fun, all of her previous work holds up though and I’d recommend. You’re also one of my new favorite RU-vidrs to regularly watch as the first video I caught of yours was on the Colleen Ballinger situation and then I found myself learning all about drag race. I didn’t think that was a helpful answer to your question.

Some of my favourite RU-vidrs atm are: - Interlexual Media (she does docuseries like Lexual Does the 90's and Let's Talk About Sex with a heavy focus on black culture, and doesn't censor her content) - Petal Palmer (covers medical mysteries and true crime in a really compassionate way) - Dankpods (also one of his side channels Garbage Time. Out of any RU-vidr on this godforsaken platform, I trust him the most. He refuses to take sponsorships and limits his RU-vid ads as much as he can, since he makes most of his money on Floatplane). - Rotten Mango (I know she used to do mukbang content which I'm not a fan of, but I love her current format of sitting in a chair and telling you and a friend off camera a story) - Smiley Citrus (she does lifestyle vlogs and content about finance, which keeps me motivated to stick to my financial goals) - Taitset (he does content about public transport, mostly Victorian public transport since he's Melbourne-based. His content is really well made and he has a really dry sense of humour that I like) - The Raven's Eye (also does true crime or disasters, but is similarly compassionate like Petal Palmer is. His videos are also just the right length, usually under 20 minutes. he doesn't do sponsors at all, I think he just does this as a hobby). - Be Kind Rewind (does mini documentaries about film and Oscar winners)

One channel that came out of a buzz feed group that I think is underrated is the kitchen and jorn show. It’s a channel hosted by Kristen and Jen who used to be on Ladylike by Buzzfeed and have now spun-off into their own channel where they do things like try random Trader Joe’s snacks or go thrift shopping. Highly recommend!

Anthony Fantano was on buzzfeed?? Edit: last name is not Fontana

Hahhaha i completely forgot that Safiya Nygaard used to be part of buzzfeed😂.I love watching her videos.😊

Ned’s face in the thumbnail was a jump scare I wasn’t ready for

What with the whole Watcher debacle, this is SO relevant

Can you do a downfall of rooster teeth?

Kayla! Big big, huge fan. (I listen to y’all on the rigged recap) but I’m inquiring about the Chappel Roan vid you talked about doing? Just wondering if that’s still happening or if it was delayed. Love you! 💖

Watching this, I can’t help but think of how Dropout (formerly CollegeHumor) also wrestles with these things Try Guys and Watchers deal with since being dropped by IAC. Sam Reich said in a recent interview that relying on internet content alone was becoming unsustainable, so adding the streaming service for some exclusive personality-led content was a good thing. That’s said, they kept RU-vid as a place for organic marketing to post clips and the occasional episode (or season of D20) to draw in long time fans and new ones. Seems like the Watchers guys tried to do something like this, but just missed the mark.

Right now my favorite YT channel is Gold Shaw Farms. I don't usually watch farming channels but when GSF uploads a new one I almost always watch it asap. (the cows are currently having babies)

This was a nice video. Quick but still making sure all the relevant points got made. ^^ As for channels I'm watching? Flawed Peacock, if you like game/movie analysis, this is your man.

Amazing video. Keep it going 💪

So excited to watch this vid but where is the Chappell Roan vid 🤧

I really enjoyed this video a lot and your commentary- I like all your videos to be honest! I wish Watcher the best of luck, I really enjoy a lot of their content, especially Puppet History. To answer your question my favorite RU-vidr is probably Jen from Fundie Fridays who makes commentary videos unpacking, explaining and sometimes making fun of fundamentalist conservative Christianity.

omg you mentioned sourcefed and it unlocked a whole bunch of 2010s memories 😭

Love ur content

To answer the question of "who am i watching lately" the answer is Ashley Norton 😁

Buzzfeed Worth it was the bee's knees! I still go back to those videos regularly to get inspiration for my own cooking. Andrew is a gem.

The Try Guys were my favorite and still are when it comes to Buzzfeed creators but nowadays I watch Kelsey Impicciche and her gameplay videos of The Sims 4