As BuzzFeed News shuts down this week, former editor-in-chief Ben Smith joins Andy to reflect on BuzzFeed’s successes and pitfalls and the end of the first digital era of news. Smith explains how they used metrics and analytics to change journalism, what he learned from his fateful meeting with Steve Bannon, and why the platforms are still bigger than the personalities -- even Tucker Carlson. They also chat about the future of journalism and how it will be funded in a post-click world.

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Check out these resources from today’s episode: 

• Ben’s book “Traffic Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral” is available everywhere now. 
• Read Ben’s work at Semafor. 
• Find vaccines, masks, testing, treatments, and other resources in your community: https://www.covid.gov/
• Order Andy’s book, “Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response”: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165 

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