Vivek Ramaswamy is on a mission to turn BuzzFeed into a millennial conservative mouthpiece
The 2024 US presidential election campaign trail has seen its fair share of, shall we say, interesting candidates. And this week, for our scheduled US election recap, we’ve decided to focus our attention on one individual who, despite no longer being an active participant vying for the top dog spot, is still managing to dominate headlines. I’m of course referring to Republican politician and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
On Thursday 23 May 2024, it was announced that Ramaswamy had acquired a 7.7 per cent activist stake in media company BuzzFeed—the number has now been raised to 8.4 per cent. For those of you who might not be familiar with the concept of an activist stakeholder, the role usually entails an outsider employing a variety of tactics in order to bring typically quite drastic change within the company.
In Ramaswamy’s case, it’s become evidently clear that his goal is to transform BuzzFeed into the millennial mouthpiece for conservative America. According to The Guardian, the Republican politician recently penned a letter to the media company, urging it to cut staff and hire right-wing commentators like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens.
BuzzFeed has been in progressive financial decline for quite some time now. Indeed, the entire digital media industry has felt increased pressures amid economic strife. Moreover, an unwillingness to adapt and a lack of proper internal management preparing for the future has seen some of the most innovative companies now left in the dust.
In February, BuzzFeed decided to sell media startup Complex for $108.6 million, one of the business’ most crucial steps towards attempting to save the company from being shut down altogether. This sale also came with the announcement that BuzzFeed would be laying off 16 per cent of its staff ahead of a “planned strategic restructuring” to “enhance the company’s profitability” and “reduce centralized costs,” as reported by CNN.
Ramaswamy’s letter to BuzzFeed’s board also stated that the company had “lost its way” and that there needed to be a “major shift” in strategy. Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed’s co-founder and CEO, responded to the former presidential candidate’s probably quite unwelcome suggestions by stating that there had been “some fundamental misunderstandings” about the business partnership.
Moreover, Peretti acknowledged the company’s financial struggles but retorted by noting: “I’m very sceptical it makes business sense to turn BuzzFeed into a creator platform for inflammatory political pundits.”
Ramaswamy, despite having a relatively extensive business background, has very little experience in the media space. The 38-year-old’s career has primarily been focused on the pharmaceutical industry. However, during the campaign trail, Ramaswamy made it very clear that his platform would be grounded in right-wing politics and anti-wokenness.
Back in 2021, he released a book titled Woke Inc wherein he slammed modern-day wokeism and identity politics, comparing the “woke left” to “psychological slavery.”
With the White House no longer a viable option, Ramaswamy will likely continue trying to use his $950 million fortune to spread his rhetoric—a narrative he clearly believes to be incredibly important for the people of America to hear.
