The news: Media entrepreneur Byron Allen will become the CEO and majority owner of BuzzFeed, with plans to turn the digital media company into the foundation for a free streaming service competing with YouTube.

• Allen, who bought about 51% of BuzzFeed’s outstanding shares in a deal worth $120 million, wants to “build on the iconic foundation of BuzzFeed and HuffPost by expanding into free-streaming video, audio and user-generated content.”
• The new CEO and chairman wants to put BuzzFeed in close competition with YouTube. AI will play a significant role in achieving this goal; BuzzFeed said that the tool “will accelerate content creation, distribution, and discovery” across BuzzFeed properties.

BuzzFeed Studios and Tasty will be spun into separate entities while remaining fully owned subsidiaries of BuzzFeed.

Will it work? While the deal may help BuzzFeed avoid bankruptcy amid the decline of the digital publishing model, competing with YouTube is a tall order.