# Transcript: Featured Session: Enough with the Bullsh*T: BuzzFeed Founder Shares His Plan to Make the Internet Fun Again

**Date:** March 13, 2026 · 10:00 PM  
**Session:** [Featured Session: Enough with the Bullsh*T: BuzzFeed Founder Shares His Plan to Make the Internet Fun Again](/sessions/2026-03-13/pp1149188-featured-session-enough-with-the-bullsh-t-buzzfeed-founder-shares-his-plan-to-ma)

## Summary

BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti diagnoses the media industry's crisis: both content distribution and production have been commoditized by platforms and AI. He argues that value will shift to three scarce, hard-to-automate qualities — taste, culture, and community — and demonstrates BuzzFeed's pivot through new products like the Island creative social app.

## Topics

`media industry` · `content distribution` · `artificial intelligence` · `taste economy` · `community building` · `buzzfeed` · `creator economy` · `platform economics`

## Key Takeaways

1. Both content distribution (now controlled by platforms) and content production (now automatable by AI) have been commoditized, destroying media's two traditional revenue sources.
2. Social media platforms are 'negative value products' — most users would pay to make them disappear, but only if they disappeared for everyone, similar to cigarettes.
3. Value in media will shift to three scarce qualities big tech can't automate: taste (distinctive vibes and curation), culture (shared experiences breaking filter bubbles), and community (real human connection).
4. Media companies must move from producing commodity content at scale to curating experiences with distinctive point of view and building genuine communities.

## Full Transcript

Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed founder, opens by explaining the fundamental crisis facing media companies. Historically, media companies made money from content distribution — printing presses, trucks, satellite dishes, movie theaters. The internet made distribution almost free, destroying that revenue model. Now, most distribution happens through platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and X, which control roughly 90% of content distribution.

The tech platforms that control distribution don't have taste or feel for the content, and aren't fulfilling media's social responsibilities. A National Bureau of Economic Research study found that most respondents would prefer to live in a world where TikTok and Instagram didn't exist, and would pay money to make them disappear — but only if they disappeared for everyone. Economists call this 'negative value' — comparable to cigarettes, where users would pay to not have the product.

Content production is also being commoditized. AI can now generate articles, images, and videos at massive scale for almost zero cost. With both distribution and production becoming essentially free, the two traditional sources of media revenue have collapsed. Value will move to what is scarce and hard to automate.

Peretti identifies three areas where value will concentrate: taste, culture, and community. Taste means quirky, imperfect experiences with great vibes — products like Midjourney, NYT Games, Monument Valley, and Red Dead Redemption. Culture means shared experiences that break personalization bubbles — mega events like the Super Bowl, niche fandoms, sites with strong POV. Community means bringing people together through memberships, real-world events, running clubs, niche social apps, and community ownership.

BuzzFeed is repositioning around these principles. Their food brand Tasty generates $500M+ in annual commerce. They're launching new apps: Island, an AI-powered creative social app where friends can riff on photos and memes together in a fun, unserious way; and Conjure, a more experimental photo-of-the-day app with an AI 'spirit' serving as CEO. The editorial team curates trends and cultural moments rather than just producing commodity content.

The core thesis is that media's future lies not in competing on distribution or volume of content production — both now commoditized — but in developing distinctive taste, creating shared cultural experiences, and building genuine communities. These human qualities are what big tech cannot automate.

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*Source: stt · Language: en · Model: claude-opus-4-6*

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