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New president Coleman 'back in the mafia' at BuzzFeed

Cogan Schneier
USATODAY
Greg Coleman, president of BuzzFeed, in their New York office on Aug. 25.

Greg Coleman has a busy fall coming up. He's preparing for a digital media innovation class he teaches at New York University to 75 graduate students. His wife, Jill, is expecting a baby in October. Oh, and he just started a new job — as president of BuzzFeed.

Coleman, who comes from the advertising technology firm Criteo, succeeds Jon Steinberg at the popular website, famed for its quirky lists, funny cat photos and genius for amassing viral content. Coleman, who's known for his digital advertising chops, says he's spending his early days on the job playing catch up.

"I'm meeting, learning, listening," said Coleman, 59, when we spoke recently. "In the next couple of months, I'm gonna be catching up to the rocket ship, getting into the rocket ship. Then once I catch up, I'll figure out how to add the value the team here wants me to add."

Coleman, who will oversee all aspects of BuzzFeed's business side, is boarding the rocket ship at an exciting time: BuzzFeed just secured a $50 million investment from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.The website, which has 150 million unique monthly visitors, also has announced a major expansion of its video operation, with plans to produce feature-length video content.

REM RIEDER: BuzzFeed's great leap forward

Coleman's new gig is also a bit of a homecoming. A former president of The Huffington Post, where he boosted sales dramatically, he'll once again be teaming up with HuffPo co-founders Jonah Peretti and Ken Lerer, BuzzFeed's CEO and chairman, respectively.

"Whatever it is about this Huffington Post mafia, I feel so empowered to come into this job, because the team that brought me in knows what I can do and I know what they can do," Coleman says.

Said Peretti when Coleman's new gig was announced earlier this month, "Greg helped transform industries at Huffington Post and Criteo and now will scale social advertising globally as it becomes an essential part of every major brand's marketing strategy."

It's clear that Coleman sees video as an important part of BuzzFeed's future. He'll soon be making the trek to California to spend time with Executive Vice President of Video Ze Frank. Coleman says the company has been building up its studios and hiring more people, with the goal of figuring out how to merge the BuzzFeed brand with long-form video.

Coleman adds that he thinks eventually, BuzzFeed Video will be as important, if not more important, than buzzfeed.com. He said that's because video content is shared so easily, and what's more, people feel compelled to share it. And "shareability" has been BuzzFeed's stock in trade from the get-go.

"What is propelling BuzzFeed is that combination of technology, and what to create and curate that just absolutely hits people right between the eyes on stuff they want to share," says Coleman, who also oversaw ad sales at Yahoo.

BuzzFeed, the go-to venue for listicles, has also taken the plunge into serious journalism in recent years. Coleman says though the website might be famous for its zany lists ("7 baby goats that want you to know they are present"), investing in quality reporting is important for the company's growth. BuzzFeed has established teams for political coverage, investigative reporting and long-form journalism and is doubling its roster of foreign correspondents from six to 12.

Coleman says building credibility is key, because with credibility come readers — and revenue. "The money follows the eyeballs," Coleman says.

Greg Coleman is president of BuzzFeed.

Coleman certainly has experience with hectic environments: He is the second oldest of 12 siblings. He says growing up with them on Long Island, N.Y., gave him a first-rate education in mediation and negotiation.

"As well as how to throw elbows when playing basketball with your brothers," he adds.

Coleman's father was a source of inspiration, a businessman and a "real entrepreneur," Coleman says. Greg Coleman Sr. started a company in the early 1960s, Alloys Unlimited, that later went public and was bought by the United Kingdom firm Plessey.

Coleman recalls sitting around the dinner table with his family, listening to his father talk shop with whichever high-profile CEO he had invited over that night. "He then became one of the first real VCs," Coleman says, "before anyone knew what a VC was."

Coleman studied business at Georgetown University, then went on to attend graduate school at New York University. He didn't finish, though, as he was quickly "lured into business."

Coleman comes on board when the company is awash in bold new plans. It's setting up BuzzFeeds in Mexico City, Berlin, Mumbai and Tokyo. It's launching a division whose mission will be making off-site content for such venues as Instagram and Tumblr. And it's eager to launch as well as buy new companies.

Still, for Coleman, that's merely scratching the surface of what BuzzFeed can become. Social media is in its early stages, and he doesn't know what BuzzFeed will come up with next.

He adds, though, that it will take "some real forms of genius" to create long-form content that people will want to share as readily as they do lists about baby goats.

In the meantime, Coleman says he's just happy to be back in the mafia.

"It was one of the greatest business feelings that I've ever had ... to have the good fortune to be asked to come back into this trusted environment," he says. "I better hold up my end of the bargain."

Greg Coleman of BuzzFeed.
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