The Wall Street Journal is reporting that BuzzFeed is looking to expand in Southern California — big time.

According to those familiar with the deal being discussed, the rising media star is looking to lease a 250,000-square-foot complex on the edge of downtown L.A. This comes just weeks after a $200 million investment by NBC Universal.

How did a site known for cat videos and listicles become a major media player?

Wall Street Journal media reporter Lukas Alpert says when founder Jonah Peretti started BuzzFeed in 2006, he did so with a firm understanding of the role social media would play in the site's future success. 

“What Jonah was really good at was understanding the infrastructure of the internet, how social media works, and how you can disseminate your content using these tools,” Alpert said.

Alpert says 2012 marked a turning point in the life of the young media company.

“They got more investment and started to build out their staff quite aggressively. And -- not to say they were focusing less on cat videos and cute gifs -- but they were bolstering it with more traditional news coverage, and in the last couple years, they really focused in on building a video presence, which is largely what they do in Southern California,” he said.

The media reporter says the company had a good reason for diversifying their content: survival.

“They recognized that there was a limited utility for that--there are a lot of copycats, tons of sites do this now, so they wanted to kinda maybe advance past that … They started building out a more traditional news staff, they do a lot of DC coverage, they do crime, they do international stuff...” he said.

For all of these beats, the site depends heavily on digital social circles for exposure. BuzzFeed is a veritable fountain of distraction and entertainment, but individual stories aren’t always easy to find. But, have you ever wondered why your friends seem to only share articles that are relevant to you? Alpert says BuzzFeed knows why.

“They think that they can get to people with the stuff that they’re interested in in a variety of ways, and that’s sort of how they built this,” Alpert said.

Going forward, Alpert says that BuzzFeed will probably focus on expanding the site’s video components. That’s where -- he says -- the new L.A. office will probably come in.

“They just got this very large investment from Comcast, and part of that investment was that they’re going to focus on how to make BuzzFeed content live in the Comcast universe … So it seems like video is the big area of growth for them now,” he said.

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