Where's the BuzzFeed in New York Times' convention coverage?

  By Stacey Welsh

This is an update to Stacey Welsh's June 23 post titled "'Buzz surrounds New York Times politics partnership.'"

The New York Times is buzzing with coverage of the Republican and Democratic national conventions -- but it doesn't look like that includes as much BuzzFeed as promised. I've found little evidence of joint coverage despite the organizations' announcing a political partnership in June.

One spot where it seems to be missing: the Times' live convention webcast, TimesCast, which features interviews with analysts who can give context to the event. In June, The Huffington Post said BuzzFeed would "contribute" to that effort, but it's difficult to say whether that's happened. Although it's possible BuzzFeed writers have brainstormed some of the content, Times staffers are the ones appearing in segments. When I found out about the partnership this summer, I got the impression staffers from both sides would appear.

The Times has independently embraced social media. One TimesCast segment features two of the paper's columnists talking about Google + hangouts they had with voters. The Times has also posted segments analyzing Republican-convention tweets and looking at social media outlets that advertised there. But despite this, the paper seems to be leaning toward traditional coverage (certainly not tossing in animated GIFs of Julian Castro's daughter flipping her hair). To its credit, BuzzFeed has occasionally departed from its quirky norm by mixing in serious political pieces -- but those articles are not part of the collaboration.

I'm not sure why the partnership isn't more prominent. Maybe the Times and BuzzFeed have chosen to stick to their niche markets. However, it seems both could find new audiences if they played up what they announced in June.

But with more than a month before the election, there is still time.

Image courtesy of New York Times politics