Buzzworthy

Buzzworthy

The ‘Southern Belle’ Who Helped Change Digital Media

Some people remember the moment their lives changed. Ashley McCollum ’09 remembers the breath.

It was the summer before her junior year at PC. She was interning with Anne Pinckney Smith, PC’s former director of events.

McCollum and Smith were planning an event for Veterans Day, and McCollum was overwhelmed by the stress of getting everything in order.

“I was standing in the doorway in Anne’s office in Moorefield House,” McCollum said, “and I remember Anne saying, ‘Honestly, you should take the rest of the day off. Why don’t you go home?

“‘And, while you’re at it, I don’t think you should be a lawyer.’”

McCollum was majoring in political science and economics and planned to go into political or government work. On her first day at PC, she told the career services director she wanted to be the governor of South Carolina one day. Or at least the governor’s wife.

Up until that breath.

“Anne said, ‘I think you should study abroad somewhere and go work in media,’” McCollum said. “And in one breath Anne painted the future I’m not sure I would have ever done.

“There was something about standing in the doorway of Anne’s office in Moorefield House, and my whole life changed.”

A few months after the conversation, McCollum flew to New York City to visit friend and classmate Janna Cone ’09, who was interning at Vera Wang. McCollum grew up watching “Today” and had a plan to get her foot in the door in the world of media. She went to a live taping of the show and held up a cardboard cutout saying, “This Southern Belle wants to be NBC’s summer intern.”

“If I were going to be so close to the ‘Today Show’ and all these producers, it felt like I should be able to get a job, you know?” McCollum said. “That was logical to me.”

Her plan worked. The executive producer of “Today” spotted

McCollum’s sign and chatted with her. McCollum was prepared and had a cover letter on hand, complete with the day’s date on it. The Southern belle became NBC’s summer intern weeks before her senior year.

After she graduated, McCollum landed a position in NBC’s prestigious Page Program. Halfway through the program, she took a full-time position with the marketing and communications team for NBC News.

McCollum stayed at NBC for three years before deciding it was time to move on. She had two job offers to consider: One was with an up-and-coming media company called BuzzFeed that was venturing into covering news. The other was with the New York Times.

“I chose BuzzFeed,” McCollum said. “A lot of people referred to it as a blog. I thought it was so cool that this web culture blog had these big ambitions to create a news division.”

McCollum became BuzzFeed’s first publicist in 2012, only three years after graduating from PC. Her job was to notify the news media when BuzzFeed broke stories, had scoops or landed big interviews.

McCollum was among the first 50 employees at BuzzFeed. The company grew as fast as the viral stories on its website spread: There were 1,000 employees by 2015.

“It was the early days of BuzzFeed having a news organization, and now it's a well-respected global news organization,” McCollum said. “It was really amazing to watch that team grow so much, and I’m proud that so much truth has been told because of that news team.”

McCollum served in the publicist role for two years before transitioning to vice president of business development and communications and ultimately to the chief of staff for the CEO of BuzzFeed.

“The company grew, and we needed a clearer way to roll out strategy,” McCollum said. “And we needed a way to organize the team better and provide focus.”

As chief of staff, McCollum took the CEO’s vision for the company and turned it into action by coordinating and communicating with all of the different teams.

After serving as chief of staff, McCollum became the general manager of Tasty, an experimental BuzzFeed brand whose cooking videos were in everyone’s Facebook feeds. In the role, McCollum was responsible for “anything that had to do with Tasty,” she says, from advertising pricing to managing the creative team that shot the videos.

McCollum has been recognized for her work in the digital media industry. In 2017, only eight years after receiving her diploma on West Plaza, McCollum was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. The magazine credited McCollum with “positioning BuzzFeed as an internationally recognized brand.”

That same year, McCollum was one of only 18 who walked away with Adweek’s Changing the Game Awards. The award recognizes “the women who are making bold moves and reinventing the rules of marketing.”

McCollum says she talks about Smith and PC in every interview she does.

“I had no business doing anything in media, and so to beat those odds really requires a mentor who is thinking about you,” she said. “I'm just so grateful that she did that, and grateful to PC for the experience where I got to meet her and so many other people.”

Ashley McCollum will receive a 2019 Outstanding Young Alumna Award at Homecoming this year.