BuzzFeed’s Finances, Editorial Setup, Super Bowl Ad Crowdsoucing

The Strategist picks the day’s most relevant and interesting stories about the world of content from around the web. Here’s what you should be reading today:

BuzzFeed Receives $20 Million in Financing

Brian Stelter of the New York Times reports that BuzzFeed has raised almost $20 million in new financing.

With this money, it plans to “hire more employees, try to strengthen its presence on mobile phones and potentially add international flavors of its Web site.”

Last year, Politico’s Ben Smith became the site’s editor in chief, and it also saw traffic and revenue growth.

Starting and Maintaining an Editorial Calendar

Angela Stringfellow of Unbounce suggests using WordPress plugins Stresslimit Editorial Calendar, Edit Flow, and Future Posts Calendar in order to organize blogging and plan it out.

Calendar items need to include the post date, author, working title, category, tags, and keywords, to name a few. Sharing the calendar is very important because the company’s employees are “able to utilize each other’s networks and ideas.”

Finalists for the Crowdsourced Super Bowl Ads

Todd Wasserman of Mashable reports on the top five finalists for Doritos’ crowdsourced Super Bowl ads contest.

This is the sixth year in a row that the “Crash the Super Bowl” competition has been going on. If an ad ranks number one on the AdMeter from USA Today, the creator of it will receive $1 million and the chance to work alongside Michael Bay on the newest Transformers sequel.

Liberty Media Taking over Sirius XM Radio

According to the Wall Street Journal, Liberty Media Corp. was given permission by the FCC to take hold of Sirius XM Radio Inc. within the next 60 days.

For nine months, the company has been trying to accomplish this. It is a move that was opposed by Former Sirius Chief Mel Karmazin.

Pinterest Acquires Punchfork

Kevin Fitchard of Paid Content writes that Pinterest has acquired Punchfork, a recipe website.

Since Pinterest users pin food frequently, he says that it was a natural first acquisition for the company. Punchfork is a recipe aggregation portal and has built “an API which food bloggers and independent recipe sites can tap into to bring their recipes and culinary musings to Punchfork’s growing audience.”

It will shut down its site, API, and mobile apps, and will help support Pinterest’s recipe discovery boards.

Writing Outstanding Content for Marketing

Brianne Carlon of Forward Metrics says that it’s important to create as much quality content as possible in campaigns. 

To do that, marketers should ask questions and make readers feel comfortable by relating “to their past experiences or a place they enjoy visiting in order to carefully usher them into your desired situation.” Marketers should go with their guts on what they think is good content and use data to back up claims and prove points.

Donna Karan’s Facebook App Goes Live

Donna Karan Atelier, a fashion company that creates custom gowns, has released a Facebook app that shows how red carpet clothing is made.

After users like the page, they will be granted permission to use the app. Since the app was launched in the middle of last month, the page has received over 3,000 additional likes.