BuzzFeed [3] is to launch a business-based website, it officially announced today. (Though the news was much-discussed [4] on Twitter over the weekend.) The blog network, seen by just about everyone as King of the Memes [5] (and, indeed, seen by just about everyone) has hired Peter Lauria, formerly head of Technology, Media and Telecoms at Thomsons Reuter, to run the vertical.

"There is increasingly this big, social conversation around business content that people are sharing and reading, and we want to be in it," said Ben Smith, BuzzFeed's editor-in-chief. "Twitter is the home of hard breaking news across categories, but specifically to business, there is this big conversation around LinkedIn. Everybody thinks of it as your resume, but actually there are thousands of people using it as a social platform."

Lauria's mandate is to bring the DNA of a tabloid business sector to the site. Of his new gig, Lauria said: "Everything you see on the BuzzFeed vertical, we want it to be exclusive or funny."

Anyone else thinking of this now?

Would you go to BuzzFeed for its business coverage? Likewise, would you go to The Economist for your funnies? Opinions below. We'll take funny cat videos too, you know--as long as they're original.

[Image by Michael Lewis]