Viral Fellow, Buzzfeed
BuzzFeed.com
$20.00 an hour + Bonus compensation based on exceeding given success benchmarks.
More information about location
Social news organization
Be an early applicant
Social news organization
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$20.00 an hour + Bonus compensation based on exceeding given success benchmarks.
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
BuzzFeed's mission is to make the internet better by providing trusted, quality, brand-safe news and entertainment to hundreds of millions of people; making content more inclusive, empathetic, and creative; and inspiring its audience to live better lives.
Role
Who you are
- Fellows need a strong grasp of the nuanced cultural conversations happening all over the internet and should be excited about contributing to those conversations
- We’re looking for people who are fascinated by social media, human psychology, and trends of all kinds
- We're looking for culture and internet obsessives with a passion for the things people are sharing, liking, recommending, and talking about. You should also have:
- A positive, curious, playful disposition
- A genuine, wide-eyed love of pop culture and internet trends in all their forms
- An interest in social platforms and what drives people to share content
- Curiosity and excitement about social platforms (TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, Tumblr, etc.)
- Curiosity and excitement about utilizing emerging AI technology to create unique and entertaining content
- In addition, you should demonstrate the following:
- Some experience creating content for the internet (it doesn’t have to be formal — anything from published articles to creative Twitter threads to personal TikTok accounts)
- Ability to quickly identify social trends and topics
- Ability to handle critical feedback and improve from it
- Eagerness to collaborate
- Ability to interpret key audience data points relating to your work and use it to adapt and evolve your approach moving forward
What the job involves
- Union Status: Non-Union
- The BuzzFeed Viral Fellowship is a year-long program for aspiring and hungry writers eager to hone their skills, and to learn by doing
- The program is a crash course in how to consistently create content that captures readers’ attention, pushes the cultural conversation forward, and reaches a massive audience
- BuzzFeed is both a tech and a media company and we’ve long used audience data and trend insights to publish widely shared articles that surprise and delight people
- The Viral Fellowship is a chance to be part of this hugely analytical and creative practice
- You’ll learn — and learn to get obsessed — with how content is packaged and how to keep finding huge audiences
- On any given day, you might be researching behind-the-scenes facts and Easter eggs about a trending piece of pop culture, curating the funniest content from around the web, or reporting on the trending topic of the day
- Fellows will work with and learn from members of the BuzzFeed team — some of the smartest, weirdest, most creative, and most viral creators out there
- This is the perfect opportunity for someone interested in pursuing a career in digital media
- You won’t be running errands for senior staff, or transcribing someone else’s interviews, you will be pitching ideas, taking assignments, brainstorming, collaborating, and writing dozens of stories that will be published to BuzzFeed.com and promoted across our social channels
- The Fellowship is fun and inspiring, but also fast-paced and challenging. You’ll be expected to meet goals related to output and article performance.
Application process
- The deadline to apply for this Fellowship is June 20, 2025 by 5pm EST. All application materials will need to be submitted when you apply. The intended (and tentative) start date for this Fellowship is July 22nd, 2025
- Instead of a formal cover letter, please include a few short paragraphs about what topics you’d want to write about for BuzzFeed, and what interests you about the content BuzzFeed makes
- Create a BuzzFeed.com/community profile, and create 1-2 posts that reflect your voice and interests. Please submit articles or lists, rather than quizzes! When you submit your posts, include “This is for the Editorial Fellowship.” in the description. You’ll be asked to provide the links to your posts when you complete the application. SO, PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR COMMUNITY POSTS PRIOR TO COMPLETING THIS APPLICATION! We encourage you to check our Trending page to see examples of posts that reflect what we’re looking for, and to take note of the variety of topics and formats
- P.S. We love AI tools (seriously, they’re the best), but for your edit test, we want to hear YOUR voice, not ChatGPT’s
- Provide links to your public social media accounts
- Attach a resume — keep it to one page!
Our take
BuzzFeed is an international media company reaching hundreds of millions of readers each month. The company started life as a platform for viral media, and quickly became known for its online quizzes, listicles, and pop culture articles. At its height, the platform received over 1 billion page views each month.
In 2011, the company launched BuzzFeed News, which won multiple accolades including the National Magazine Award and the George Polk Award before the 2023 announcement it would be shutting down. The closure of its News arm comes alongside similar troubles amongst its online news peers, and has been spurred along by a tough economy, a declining stock market, a slowdown in digital advertising, and changing audience habits.
Despite this considerable blow to its operations, BuzzFeed will continue its presence across YouTube, podcasting and other content, with hopes it will bounce back in the upcoming years. Interestingly, it was announced that HuffPost - which the company bought in 2020 - will continue to publish news as it remains profitable.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
1% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 8 rounds)
Jun 2021
$150m
CONVERTIBLE
Nov 2016
$200m
SERIES G
Total funding: $646.3m
Company benefits
- Work from home opportunities
Company HQ
Gramercy Park, New York, NY
Leadership
Jonah Peretti
(CEO)Co-founder of the Huffington Post (alongside Arianna Huffington).
Salary benchmarks
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