New-Media Companies Shift Attention to TV

Companies like BuzzFeed, Vice Media and Huffington Post are known as “new-media” specialists -- makers of lists, articles and videos designed to go viral online and lure young audiences. Now, they’re venturing aggressively into a decidedly old-media stronghold: television. There are a variety of potential models, most of which involve some sort of tie-up with traditional media companies: BuzzFeed says it may create TV shows with Comcast Corp.’s Universal Studios. Vice Media is in talks to take control of a cable channel from A+E Networks.

On one level, it’s a jarring and seemingly illogical shift for companies that have prided themselves on being the opposite of traditional. The TV business is in turmoil, as networks fret over young audiences lost to cord-cutting and the fragmentation of viewing from having so much original content on so many cable channels.