BuzzFeed to interview President Obama on Tuesday

If you need another clear marker that BuzzFeed is a news operation with reach and not just a website with lists, this is a pretty good one. Editor-in-chief Ben Smith will interview President Obama on Tuesday and is soliciting possible questions and topics on the BuzzFeed Facebook page.

I'll be talking about BuzzFeed's emergence as a news media force this afternoon in the weekly LA Observed segment on KCRW. The conversation with host Steve Chiotakis is scheduled to air during "All Things Considered" at 4:44 p.m. We'll talk about some of BuzzFeed's stories and it's growing Los Angeles operation.

Here's some of Smith's note to readers:

BuzzFeed News has had our share of big stories and big interviews, but this will be our first interview with a sitting president of the United States. (President Bush missed his chance back in the day.) It’s a nice tribute to the work my colleagues have done to take this place from an ambitious, zany experiment to one of the most ambitious new news and media organizations in the world.

Separately, and also exciting, our inspired cousins at BuzzFeed Motion Pictures will be shooting a video with President Obama.

The BuzzFeed News interview is also an opportunity for our readers, here and across the social web, to give us some ideas. Since its inception, BuzzFeed News has covered everything from the marriage wars to the shooting war in Eastern Ukraine, and our reporters have filed searing dispatches from Ferguson to Freetown. I’m hoping to ask the president about what’s next — and what you think is next.

So tell us your toughest questions — in whatever form you think that question is best asked.

Photo is of Ben Smith.

Previously on LA Observed:
Buzzfeed, Gawker scoop LA media on sexual teacher at Marlborough
LA Times loses another reporter to BuzzFeed
Los Angeles Times loses Ken Bensinger to BuzzFeed