BuzzFeed has named Dao Nguyen as publisher, a new role for the company, Peter Kafka reported Tuesday for re/code.
Nguyen, who was previously BuzzFeed’s vice president of growth and data, will take on that role in a new way, Kafka reported.
Instead, Nguyen is heading up every part of the company that isn’t editorial, ads or video — “tech, product, data and everything related to our publishing platform,” (CEO Jonah) Peretti writes. That means she’ll now manage more than 100 people — about a sixth of BuzzFeed’s total headcount.
From Peretti’s memo:
Dao is a new type of Publisher. She isn’t the heir to a newspaper baron and she won’t be responsible for the business, selling ads or physical newsstand distribution. Instead, she’ll lead publishing for the social web, in the most modern sense, where data science, the CMS, technology, and a deep understanding of social networks, mobile devices, and digital video matter most. If publishing is “the activity of making information available to the general public,” then I’m confident Dao will become the very best publisher in a rapidly changing industry where technology and data science are the key to success. Dao has been a key player and innovator at BuzzFeed, and I’m so happy she’s accepted this role as the first Publisher of BuzzFeed.
Kafka includes the full memo from Peretti, which also names Ashley McCollum to chief of staff and Jamie Urso to chief of stuff. In October, I wrote about BuzzFeed’s efforts at increasing diversity on staff. I also wrote about BuzzFeed’s new investigative reporting fellowship for journalists of color. Nguyen is also in this story on media disruptors, as well as this Twitter list.
