Let's see...

Their web page looks like garbage and is infested with ads.

Every article reads like it was written by an unpaid communications student from BCIT.

The "journalism" (okay, I know they're actually bloggers) in the body of articles barely qualifies as content. You're better off reading the headline than wasting your time trying to decipher the poor English and surface-level analyses.

Again, stolen content.

They regularly post advertisements masquerading as actual articles. Anyone with a brain knows that these have been paid for.

They regularly post racially-charged articles whose only purpose seems to be to generate controversy (read: traffic) and incite racism in the comments section.

The only things of value on this site are maybe the posts on new restaurants or events and even then I would just read the headline and look elsewhere for the details.

Great article about why people hate Vancity Buzz so much here: Vancity Buzz wants to be better | CANADALAND

It's worth a read.

I think Eff-1 has it right about Vancity Buzz.

I don't see many differences between traditional media sources and sites like Vancity Buzz. Anyone who knows anything about the communications and marketing industries knows that newspapers have long been willing to cover a product launch, restaurant, or service if it attracts readership. Sites like Vancity Buzz are just the reflection of the changing media business model, which in turn has merely evolved.

Most of the content on that site is poor, but there are a few snippets and stories they break before anyone else does. For example, they clearly have a relationship with Translink and are able to present information about station renovations, etc before any mainstream media outlet is able to.

Worth a read, but also consider the publication while reading it.

You might as well cite "The coffee news" as your source.

You know, that crap printed on recycled paper that has useless information on it.

I'm surprised the couple of RS members who write for Vancity Buzz haven't chimed in yet on this bitchfest.

Oh damn, not until I make some fresh popcorn!

What is an alternate to that site though?

Local events miss604.com
604now.com

I come on RS or news1130 for my local news so I'm sure there's probably other local blogs out there.

Not to defend VancityBuzz at risk of losing my head but looking these sites here are the some of the top articles:

"5 things Vancouver does better than any city"
"5 Vancouver desserts you must eat in 2016"
"10 Vintage Vancouver Coffee Shop Photos"

Suffice to say, they ALL suffer from having graduates on staff from the Buzzfeed School of Journalism.

that's actually hilarious. Ive always thought that was the biggest waste of time ever. absolutely no content

Bingo. The fact many people have can't even name another site for news and information is why Vancity Buzz is successful. It's a reflection of the new generation who spends all day online and on Facebook.

Consider these Facebook audiences:

Revscene - 1800
Vancouver Sun - 76,000
Province - 50,000
CBC Vancouver - 160,000
Vancity Buzz - 265,000

It's not easy to get an social audience of that size.

^ well, there are a lot of idiots out there.. so that isn't surprising at all.

I wouldn't consider that impressive compared to our local resident members page;

https://www.facebook.com/MarcelLechPhotography/?fref=nf

As a brand VCB is big in Vancouver and that's about it. I don't know how much money that would bring in if they decided to sell and the only major local media player that might be interested is Postmedia but they're going through major budget cuts so unless VCB expands beyond Vancouver they probably won't be cashing out any time soon.

I'm comparing local media to local media. My point was more about the fact the Vancouver Sun, one of Vancouver's flagship media outlets, barely has 30% the reach on Facebook as Vancity Buzz.

2M likes is no small feat and props to him. It helps when your subject matter is completely different and your audience isn't limited to any one region.

Potential buyers might be anyone from Torstar, Postmedia, Rogers, Glacier, Corus, MSN, AOL... Who knows.

The only reason I am subjected to VSB articles is by fucking idiots who keep posting them on here (which I promptly throw up a fail fore), and dumbasses on my FB newsfeed who I promptly unfollow.

EFF-1 are you kidding? An alternative to VSB? How about any fucking news station, news1130, CTV, Global, province, the sun, the list goes on and on with real news stations that cover this city. There is even free newspapers like 24 and metro.

You can get real news anywhere, and you don't need to subject yourself to the non-sense of VSB. Breaking news is most quickly captured by real news outlets, and if by sheer luck an event is first captured by VSB (like the earthquake recently), it usually has no more useful information than my FB of people chiming in. They usually update their article after a real news outlet posts information about the event.

That's what you fail to realize, VSB has no access to stuff like the news outlets, the news outlets have seismology people who feed them information, they run weather stations through parent companies, etc. VSB does none of that shit. All they do is throw out click bait style articles which gather more hits from the stupid highschool aged fucks who don't know anything.

/rant over.

yeah the writing sucks, there's a lot of shitty content, but for me it's because of the way they handled the pacific centre news story about the "middle eastern" looking men who were taking pictures. They leaked photos of the suspects from an internal memo in the VPD, in exchange for more clicks. Just a crazy scummy thing to do and could have ruined those guys for life (turned out they were innocent).

Why you hating on VSB bro?

It's a reference to van shitty buzz

:cool:

I didn't read the whole thread, thanks

but for the social media crowd...vancity buzz headlines is the first thing they will see when it comes to a new store opening in town etc...not actual news unless it's something really unique (catfe) or big (nordstrom). If i'm interested in the topic i'll google the keyword...so as much as I'm annoyed by it there's still some purpose for its existence.

Do they also own Victoria buzz?

Timely article on this topic: Could Vancity Buzz ever dethrone the Vancouver Sun? - Vancouver Magazine

VanCity Buzz is a reflection of the changing media landscape.

I personally think it is also a reflection of our society. We want the headline, the details in 140 characters or less. We want to consume information quickly and then move onto something else. Outlets like VCB provides that. Look at their comments section and you'll get a fairly good indication of the type of people it appeals to.

There are a lot of good reporters who will be bought in the coming days by Post Media locally. That's a shame, but that reflects that chaging landscape and how people consume information and from what outlets regardless of how informative it is.

Huh? Where did I ever say there are no alternatives?

I don't fail to realize anything. A lot of what you said about VCB's standards is true. All I'm saying is their formula works for a lot of people. Meanwhile Postmedia and CTV (2 of the "real" news stations) continue to lose audiences, ad revenues, and are cutting jobs. But ok, Vancity Buzz doesn't have a weather balloon, i'll give you that.

I just got confused on the above post which asked for alternatives, and you agreed with his comment.

I'll concede VSB works for a lot of people, but I'll be the first to tell you how many people border on being full blown retard. So the fact that it works for a lot of people is not really helpful to those of us who have an IQ larger than that of a cinder block.

As louis CK said: Just think how stupid the average person is, and then consider that 50% of people are stupider than that.

Just like how we protect our kids from Peanuts when they are allergic, I feel the compulsive need to protect our stupid population from crappy news outlets like VSB.

But then again maybe I should just approach it with this philosophy:

^ the problem is that a nut allergy can only really have a negative impact on the person with the allergy, people reading misinformation from VCB could potentially affect their vote in an election for example.