Verizon Media's sale of
HuffPost to
BuzzFeed is not a complete spinoff that puts the companies on separate trajectories.
Instead, the two are more closely aligned in ways
that promise to give the digital publishers a broader range of advertising products to sell.
While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Verizon Media will own a minority interest in
BuzzFeed, aligning their interests in growing revenue and boosting valuations. In announcing the deal, the companies said they will create "an innovation group to explore
monetization opportunities."
There are signs of which direction those explorations could take, especially as Verizon Media's parent company, Verizon Communications, ramps up its marketing for
higher-speed 5G cellular service.
To show off the new service, Verizon and social-media company Snap last week created an augmented-reality musical performance in New York that could only be
viewed by Verizon customers with a 5G smartphone.
By opening Snap's Snapchat photo-messaging app and
pointing their smartphone cameras at the main branch of the New York Public Library, Verizon customers could watch a giant digital avatar of Black Pumas lead singer Eric Burton dance and sing.
Verizon is looking for digital content that gives people a reason to sign up for 5G service. Those efforts also include its deal with the National Football League to create a series of digital
experiences aimed at fans who can't attend live games during the pandemic.
These experiences hint at some of the possibilities for digital publishers, like BuzzFeed and
HuffPost, to create immersive content that is too data-intensive to quickly distribute on most smartphones today.
It's conceivable that BuzzFeed could create similar
digital content and find sponsors that want to engage consumers with a branded experience.