Buzzfeed's purpose was to make money. Buzzfeed News was a semi-successful attempt to take money from advertisers who preferred high minded NYT/WSJ type audiences by gaining the reputation of "no, no, you see Buzzfeed News is the serious part, it actually does good stuff!".
It didn't work because the financial cards are stacked against print media, there is basically NYT and then tech billionaire charity cases like The Post and The Atlantic.
I agree that Buzzfeed should not have gone public. For those of us who are more cynical, we see Buzzfeed News as the reputable veneer on the listicle business. The actual news organization was started 5 years after the listicle business.
