BuzzFeed and CNN are teaming up to launch the CNN BuzzFeed channel on YouTube (News - Alert). Powered by CNN’s current and archival video footage, BuzzFeed will create mash-up news videos tailored for the social Web, and the content will appear on both CNN.com and the CNN/BuzzFeed YouTube channel. 

In addition, the two organizations will collaborate on original list posts that combine CNN’s newsgathering and BuzzFeed’s reach into the youth market. The lists will be published to CNN.com.

“By pairing the journalistic strength and reach of the CNN brand with BuzzFeed’s unique editorial approach and young audience, our partnership will enable both organizations to engage new audiences,” said KC Estenson, senior vice president of CNN Digital. “It’s the perfect modern day media collaboration.”

Production will be headquartered in a newly constructed “social video studio” in Los Angeles, which will have a coffee shop and store where, the company said, influencers, thinkers and celebrities will be able create informal videos. The team will grow to over 30 people in the coming months.

"From Web video's infancy to a massive shift to mobile video viewing, the community and ecosystem of YouTube is at the heart of the social Web. BuzzFeed's massive audience is hungry for new, interesting video formats – YouTube gets that better than anyone and we're elated to be working with them," said Ze Frank, BuzzFeed's executive vice president of video. "CNN.com is one of the biggest, strongest news sites in the world. We are thrilled to work with their talented team and to tap into their incredible archive of footage as we try to crack original news video for the social Web."

The partnership with CNN is part of an overall plan by BuzzFeed to escalate its news and entertainment video content output. In addition to the video created exclusively for YouTube, a new BuzzFeed Video section will have a dedicated, prominent placement on the BuzzFeed homepage that will bring new forms of social content to the site's 60 million unique monthly visitors.

"There has been a massive cultural shift in how people – particularly young people – consume news and entertainment, and Ze and his team are tapping into the next generation of video production and consumption,” said Jon Steinberg, BuzzFeed's president and COO. “More than 70 percent of BuzzFeed’s traffic is social, almost half is mobile, and we are seeing these huge shifts earlier than others because the majority of our readers are 18-34. We are thrilled to partner with YouTube to bring a new generation of video content to a BuzzFeed audience that lives on social media and mobile phones.”