New York Times: ‘The Hill’ Seeks to Be More ‘Like Gawker and Buzzfeed’

From Nicholas Fandos writing at The New York Times:

At The Hill, Mr. Zimmerman, the senior director for audience and strategy, said his goal is to emulate the attitude and approach of sites like Gawker and BuzzFeed without distorting what he calls The Hill’s distinct voice. He has filled a handful of new positions, including a director of emerging platforms, who is exploring ways to use Snapchat and Facebook Live to share its content.

Mr. Zimmerman’s digital efforts come as The Hill’s owner, the New York media investor Jimmy Finkelstein, is proceeding with ambitious expansion plans.

“We want to be one of the big sites of America within a year,” Mr. Finkelstein said in an interview.

The Hill’s website had almost 14 million unique visitors in March, up 126 percent compared with the previous year, according to comScore, the traffic measurement firm. Those kinds of raw numbers have put the site in competition with sites like Politico, which it managed to surpass for the month of December, according to comScore. The Hill’s print circulation of about 26,000 has remained roughly steady.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.