Phenoms

BuzzFeed Hires Andrew Kaczynski, ‘Oppenheimer’ of Political Videos

On Howard Kurtz’s Reliable Sources yesterday, political video prodigy Andrew Kaczynski announced he will be joining Ben Smith‘s team at BuzzFeed, beginning January 1.

A 22 year-old history student at St. John’s University, Mr. Kaczynski is as cubby as they come. But he’s already made a name for himself on the 2012 campaign beat with unseen video footage of primary candidates spouting hypocritical views, which he digs out of C-SPAN’s massive online archive. Read More

Hires

Mr. Smith (image via Politico.com)

Politico's Ben Smith to Teach BuzzFeed How to Report

A major editorial expansion is in the works at BuzzFeed, the viral content aggregator best known for its panda slideshows, and it will be led by an unlikely figure.

Ben Smith, Politico senior writer and longtime New York politics reporter, has been named editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, the company announced today.

According to the release, Mr. Smith will help the site get into the business of original editorial content, hiring new reporters and launching new content sections.

BuzzFeed’s content sections are currently limited to “lol”, “cute”, “win”, “fail”, “omg”, “geeky”, “trashy”, and “wtf?”. The site recently snagged two writers from Gawker Media, Jezebel’s Whitney Jefferson and Gawker’s Matt Cherette. There are whispers of a redesign early next year. Read More

Foggy Bottom, Top

Andrea Mitchell started it.

It was she who told viewers of NBC’s The Nightly News With Brian Williams on Thursday, Nov. 13, that Hillary Clinton “is under consideration to be secretary of state.”

Since then, nobody seems to have known what to think. But that hasn’t ground Read More

Notes on a Hillary Concession

Outside, in line, BOILING. 11:22 a.m.

"Lanny, what now?" reporters ask Lanny Davis one by one. "We’re going to take the White House" is his talking point today.

And here’s a reporter who’s been covering Hillary for the whole shebang. What’s next for him? "Gonna take a week off."

Inside. There are 10 American flags Read More