Former BuzzFeed execs team up for startup betting on Facebook Live

Two of the key members of BuzzFeed's early team that helped make the company a powerhouse in native advertising are together again.

Melissa Rosenthal has been hired by business media upstart Cheddar, the first media startup to use Facebook Live as its primary distribution tool, with the official title of "Senior Vice President of Creative Development & Partnerships" -- which means figuring out how to get Cheddar's content on to as many platforms and in front of as many people as possible with the help of other companies.

It also means that Rosenthal is again paired with Jon Steinberg, the former president and later the chief operating officer of BuzzFeed. 

Rosenthal worked with Steinberg to make BuzzFeed a leading digital media company and to push native advertising into a concept that some looked on as a savior -- others as a curse.

Steinberg left BuzzFeed in 2014 and, after a stint as the CEO of the North American operations of the Daily Mail, recently launched Cheddar.

Rosenthal is tasked with pushing Cheddar well beyond that platform.

"It's getting very granular, figuring out where there are very specific types of customers and reaching them there," Rosenthal said of the new job, adding that it could get as specific as offering specialized content to airline customers in business class.

Steinberg and Rosenthal both have lofty visions, which are somewhat more understandable based on their experiences as BuzzFeed. They each started on the same day back when the company only had about 20 employees. 

By the end of Rosenthal's time there, she oversaw a staff of 100 people.

Cheddar is at a similar state of infancy. It has been broadcasting a daily live show from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for about a month. Rosenthal is the company's 10th employee -- and Steinberg has said he doesn't plan on hiring a huge staff. The company has raised $3.1 million so far from a group of investors.

The vision, though, is quite grand.

Cheddar is already positioning itself as a premium brand. Its livestreams on Facebook are free, but it announced last week that it would also be launching a subscription video service that will cost $6.99 per month. 

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Rosenthal said that Steinberg's vision for Cheddar had convinced her that a millennial-focused video-first business-minded company could succeed.

"The incumbent cable providers and content providers in the space have really negleceted this audience and have been stagnant in what they're doing," she said. "I really think Cheddar has a chance to change that."

In a memo to Cheddar staff, Steinberg recalled first working with Rosenthal in the early days of BuzzFeed.

"Melissa Rosenthal and I first worked together in the Summer of 2010. I was the new President of BuzzFeed and she was an intern. Neither of us had sold advertising," he wrote. "My fondest memory of this time is sitting with her side by side at a laptop trying to figure out what an advertising pitch to a media agency should look like."

As for Rosenthal's experience in producing and distributing native ads, she said that nothing was off the table for Cheddar, but that her job would focus more heavily on partnerships and distribution than monetization.

She noted that Steinberg has already stated publicly that he has no desire to build another company that is dependent on advertising. 

"I think what we're really going to be going after is these creative partnerships to help grow our distribution while still being able to focus on content," Rosenthal said.

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