Especially in the last year or two, Buzzfeed has been mixing in genuine, quality journalism with their listicles. For example http://www.buzzfeed.com/longform and http://www.buzzfeed.com/politics

I think Upworthy is the site that should be concerned: they have far less original content and AFAIK the entire premise is based on social (facebook) sharing.

that may be true. but can they get as good at genuine, quality journalism as they are with clickbait?

and given the valuations quality journalism companies trade at these days, maybe that's not something they want to devote serious efforts to.