BuzzFeed News is starting a new chapter in its bid to diversify its revenue streams — literally.
The digital publisher is launching a book club in November, offering its readers a dedicated space for reading and discovering new books together, while it tries to figure out a new way of generating revenue in line with its editorial perspective.
The "BuzzFeed Book Club" entails access to an exclusive newsletter as well as a closed Facebook group, essentially serving as a virtual book club, where members can discuss the book of the month as well as get access to events with authors. Members will also receive exclusive discounts both on the book of the month and other top-selling titles. There is no membership fee to become a member — at least for now.
Click here to read more about BuzzFeed's new affiliate program.
In other news:
'We can literally do anything': Inside Hulu's pitch to advertisers on how it can outperform rivals. Hulu places a lot of importance on its ad-supported user base, as well as on the fact that advertisers can get far more creative on the platform than just 15 or 30-second long ads.
A new survey says cable will win the battle for broadband customers — and it's bad news for telecom giants. Telecom companies will likely lose the long-term battle for broadband, according to research from Cowen Equity Research.
The cofounder of Instagram on why he left Facebook: 'No one ever leaves a job because everything's awesome.' There have been reports of tensions between Facebook CEO and Kevin Systrom (and fellow cofounder Mike Krieger) prior to his departure.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai says employee protests against the company's work with US military had little impact on management: 'We don't run the company by referendum.' At a tech gathering in San Francisco on Monday, Pichai remarked on an internal protest that rattled the company earlier this year.
Facebook will now show who exactly is paying to swing people's votes through online political advertising. Similar to changes rolled out in the US, Facebook will label ads as they appear in its News Feed and archive all political ads in a searchable library in the UK.
'Our industry has lost a pioneer': Tech titans are devastated by the death of Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen. Allen died from complications relating to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer he was first diagnosed with in 2009.
