Meet Shani Hilton, BuzzFeed’s Newsmaker in Chief
“The bigger we get, the harder it is to get people to realize: We don’t have to do things the way we’ve done them for the last six months.”
Amelia Krales for Re/code
“Nobody knows anything,” Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman famously wrote of the movie business. BuzzFeed’s executive editor of news Shani Hilton has a slight twist on that for the media world: Nobody knows anything for longer than six months.
Just a few years out of college, Hilton finds herself in a fascinating role: Managing a staff of more than 100 people producing BuzzFeed’s “real” news (as in, no cat pictures). In an interview with Peter Kafka on the latest episode of “Re/code Decode,” she said even successful and growing media startups shouldn’t assume they know the right ways to approach content and distribution.
“We’re still in a state of figuring things out,” she said. “We’re into change, we’re used to it, we’re down with it. The bigger we get, the harder it is to get people to realize: We don’t have to do things the way we’ve done them for the last six months.”
Hilton also discussed how she, in her 20s, came to a senior role at the growing media company, and how BuzzFeed is trying to differentiate itself from the print and broadcast giants of the past. She disputed Mic CEO Chris Altchek’s claim that millennials need a different type of news.
“Millennials are interested in the same things that other people are,” she said. “‘Tell me something I don’t know. Tell me something I care about.’”
Listen to or download the episode in the player above, or click here to subscribe to “Re/code Decode” on iTunes; you can also find “Re/code Decode” right here on TuneIn.
And here’s something special: In this week’s podcast, Peter explains how you can get a free ticket to the Code/Media Conference next month in southern California. We’re giving away a free ticket to the conference — a $3,000 value — to one winner who follows the instructions he lays out. The winner must cover her or his own travel and lodging.
Kara Swisher will be in this space on Monday to talk with Lyft president John Zimmer, and Peter Kafka will be back next Thursday to talk to Gawker’s Nick Denton.
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
