The site best known for its offbeat lists and dead-on sense of the digitally viral hired Mark Schoofs away from the highly regarded investigative site ProPublica to launch its unit. And Schoofs, who started work at the beginning of the year, has signed up three investigative reporters.
BuzzFeed on Monday announced the hiring of the third one, Aram Roston, who won a couple of Emmys when he worked for NBC News. Roston, whose specialty is national security, also worked for CNN and ABC and is the author of a book on the controversial Iraqi political figure Ahmad Chalabi. He most recently worked for Vocativ, which bills itself as a global social news network.
The site had previously lined up Ken Bensinger, who had been at the Los Angeles Times, and Alex Campbell, formerly of The Indianapolis Star. Bensinger and Times colleague Ralph Vartabedian spearheaded coverage of the Toyotas that accelerated for no reason. The episode ultimately led to the recall of 10 million vehicles.
BuzzFeed's decision to meld heavy-duty journalism with its enthusiastic embrace of the zany has been both an improbable and welcome development. The site began to evolve in late 2011 when it hired former Politico blogger Ben Smith and decided to cover the 2012 presidential election in earnest. It has since added foreign correspondents, business reporting and long-form, magazine-style articles to its unusual mix.
REM RIEDER: An encouraging flurry of news initiatives
Schoofs, who spent 11 years at The Wall Street Journal before joining ProPublica, is still building his roster. He's looking for three more investigative reporters. He also is in the market for a "data visionary," as well as a couple of people to work with said visionary.
BuzzFeed's foray into accountability journalism is particularly encouraging at a time when so many traditional news outlets have cut back on the deeply valuable but expensive endeavor.
Schoofs, who can ! barely contain his enthusiasm when he talks about his new reporters, says in one sense the unit's role will be "completely classic" That means pursuing "stories that need to be told. Betrayal of trust. Abuse of power." Going after misfeasance and malfeasance by big government and big business.
His first three recruits, he says, are all "relentless diggers." But they have something else in common, he adds. They "find interesting, oblique angles that other miss, and they can write."
And that's a bigger deal than it might seem on the surface. After a lifetime of editing, I can assure you that the ability to unearth powerful information and the facility for presenting it in an engaging manner do not always coexist in the same human being.
It was always important to try make investigative reporting arresting, or at least fathomable. But it's more critical than ever today. In the digital era, as Schoofs says, "million of other options are a click away."
Today's investigative reporters, he adds, "have to be able to get the goods. They also have to be able to get the narrative goods. Writing does have to be better today than it was before."
Schoofs, whose BuzzFeed debut was complicated by a month-long stint on a grand jury, has spent time at two prestigious journalism institutions. "I was really lucky to work in those remarkable newsrooms," he says. "I love them."
But he's clearly turned on by the energy and excitement of his unorthodox and fast-changing new employer.
"The place is growing and reinventing. We'll continue to do things that surprise people," he says. "Every day at BuzzFeed, it feels more like this decision was the right decision."
And then there's all of that BuzzFeed traffic. The site says it has about 100 million unique visitors a month.
"Sometimes it seems as if you are shooting your stories out of a BB gun," Schoofs says. At BuzzFeed, "you're shooting out of a cannon."
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