By Kevin McCauley
BUZZFEED RAISES CASH
Buzzfeed has received $19.3M in financing from New Enterprises Assocs. as the social publisher’s founder/CEO Jonah Peretti promises to “build the next great media company: socially native, tech enabled with massive scale.”
Patrick Kerins, board member at NEA, made the investment because NEA thinks “BuzzFeed will be one of the great media companies of the next decade.”
Buddy Media co-founders Michael and Kass Lazerow also have joined Hearst, Softbank, Lerer Ventures and RRE as investors in Buzzfeed.
The company says it will use the new cash infusion to further mobile development, expand geographically, grow its editorial team, invest in video, and work on new initiatives.
Buzzfeed attracted more than 40M unique visitors in December.
LANDMAN EXITS NYT
Jonathan Landman, culture editor at the New York Times since 2009, is taking a buyout after a 26-year career at the paper.
The 60-year-old wrote in an email to colleagues: We all know that the newsroom has to reduce its costs. No less urgent is its responsibility to cultivate a new generation of leaders. My continued presence would help neither. So it’s time to go.”
Prior to the NYT, Landman was deputy city editor at the New York Daily News and a reporter at Newsday and the Chicago Sun-Times.
He also worked at the Ford Foundation and was assistant editor at Scholastic Inc.
NORRIS RETURNS TO NPR
Michele Norris, who took a 15-month leave of absence at National Public Radio, is returning to it next month.
The former “All Things Considered” host will be a special correspondent and perform guest hosting duties.
Audie Cornish took over for Norris after she left the station in 2011 as her husband Broderick Johnson took a post in the Obama re-election campaign.
Norris also will produce in-depth profiles and interviews. ”The Race Card Project,” an initiative about race in America, is among Norris’ priorities.
Cornish, Robert Siegel and Melissa Block are hosts of ATC.
PEARSON INVESTS IN NOOK
Pearson is taking a five percent in Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader unit in a move that is pegged in the $90M cash range.
The U.K. publisher’s “strategic investment” includes the e-reader and tablets, Nook digital bookstore and 674 college bookstores across the U.S.
B&N will control 78.2 percent of Nook Media and Microsoft will own a 16.8 percent stake.
Pearson, which has the option to purchase an additional five percent position, says the deal will help accelerate customer access to its digital content.
Will Ethridge, CEO of Pearson North America, said in a statement: “Pearson and B&N have been valued partners for decades, and in recent years both have invested heavily and imaginatively to provide engaging and effective digital reading and learning experiences.”
He believes the alliance will deepen Pearson’s “commitment to provide better, easier experiences for our customers.”
Pearson is the world’s No. 1 higher educational publisher and biggest kindergarten through high school publisher in the U.S.
The company also owns the Financial Times and is in the process of merging its Penguin brand into Random House. |