BuzzFeed Photo Editor Licences CEN Frozen Water Pipe Photos For One-Time Web Use

This April 2013 email chain records BuzzFeed photo editor/staff photographer Macey J. Foronda contacting CEN about licensing photographs for a “Frozen Water Pipe Photos” item. The exchange shows BuzzFeed asking whether the pictures could be licensed through the agency, discussing non-exclusive one-time web use, asking for hires, agreeing to use specific CEN image files, and being directed to CEN’s accounts payable contact for invoicing. The document is significant because it records BuzzFeed acting as a normal CEN picture client two years before publishing its later attack on CEN, including negotiating usage terms, image selection, rate and invoicing. In the wider evidence chain, it helps document the practical commercial relationship between BuzzFeed and CEN before the allegations hardened, showing that BuzzFeed did not merely observe CEN from outside but had licensed and used CEN material in the ordinary course of editorial business. It should be read as part of the wider record of BuzzFeed’s own prior use of CEN content, which later became an awkward issue inside BuzzFeed when the company prepared to accuse CEN of supplying unreliable or fabricated viral material.

Source

Part of Central European News & Mike Leidig v BuzzFeed (US Second Circuit Libel Case) – CEN Case Documents

europe Media newsX Community Interest Company Published 3 May 2026 at 13:43 Source: 16 July 2016