Business Insider
Business Insider is an American financial and business news website founded in 2009 and owned by the German publishing house Axel Springer. It operates 14 national editions and an international edition. Several national editions are published in local languages.[2]
Type of site | Financial news website |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Headquarters | Germany |
Owner | Axel Springer SE |
Created by | Kevin P. Ryan |
Editor | Henry Blodget |
Parent | Insider Inc. |
URL | businessinsider.com |
Alexa rank | |
Commercial | Yes |
Launched | February 2009 New York City, U.S. |
Current status | Active |
History
Business Insider was launched in 2007 and is based in New York City. Founded by DoubleClick's former CEO Kevin P. Ryan, Dwight Merriman, and Henry Blodget,[3] the site began as a consolidation of industry vertical blogs, the first of them being Silicon Alley Insider (began May 16, 2007) and Clusterstock (started March 20, 2008).[4] In addition to providing and analyzing business news, the site aggregates news stories on various subjects from around the web. It first reported a profit in the fourth quarter of 2010.[5] In June 2012, it had 5.4 million unique visitors.[6] In 2015 Axel Springer SE acquired 88% of the stake in Business Insider Inc. for $343 million (€306 million).[7]
Forgeglobal.com lists Allen & Company LLC, RRE Ventures,[8] Pilot Group, Kohlberg Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Matthew Luckett,[9] Allen Morgan, Marc Andreessen, HuffPost, Institutional Venture Partners, Bezos Expeditions, Jeff Bezos, and Gordon Crovitz as significant early holders of the stock.[10]
Business Insider also hosts industry conferences, such as IGNITION,[11] which explores the emerging business models of digital media. In January 2015, Business Insider launched BI Intelligence,[12] a subscription-based research service that provides data and analysis on the mobile, payments, eCommerce, social, and digital media industries. The site publishes numerous annual editorial franchises, such as the "Digital 100: The World's Most Valuable Private Tech Companies".[13]
Tech Insider
In July 2015, Business Insider began the technology website Tech Insider, with a staff of 40 people working primarily from the company's existing New York headquarters, but originally separated from the main Business Insider newsroom.[14] However, Tech Insider was eventually folded into the Business Insider website.[15]
Markets Insider
In October 2016,[16] Business Insider started Markets Insider as a joint venture with Finanzen.net, another Axel Springer company. The markets data site covers stocks and the macro economy, as well as other financial assets.
BI Sub-Saharan Africa
In January 2017, Business Insider announced that it would be launching a new Sub-Saharan site in partnership with Ringier Africa Digital Publishing.[17][18] Henry Blodget—co-founder, CEO, and global editor-in-chief of Business Insider—said of the partnership, "Ringier ... is the ideal partner to help us bring to sub-saharan Africa [our] unique voice and attitude."[19] Former Ventures Africa journalist David Adeleke is the editor for Business Insider SSA.
Reception
In January 2009, the Clusterstock section appeared in Time's "Best 25 Financial Blogs",[20] and the Silicon Alley Insider section was listed in PC Magazine's "Our Favorite Blogs 2009."[21] 2009 also saw Business Insider's selection as an official Webby honoree for Best Business Blog.[22]
In 2012, Business Insider was named to the Inc. 500. In 2013, the publication was once again nominated in the Blog-Business category at the Webby Awards.[23] In January 2014, The New York Times reported that Business Insider's web traffic was comparable to that of The Wall Street Journal.[24] In 2017, Digiday included imprint Insider as a candidate in two separate categories—"Best New Vertical" and "Best Use of Instagram"—at their annual Publishing Awards.[25]
The website has, however, faced criticism for what critics consider its clickbait-style headlines.[26][27][28] In 2013, The New Yorker criticized the website for prioritizing publishing speed over accuracy.[29] In 2018, the website received criticism from some media outlets after deleting a controversial column about Scarlett Johansson.[30][31]
References
- "Businessinsider.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
- "Welcome, Business Insider Japan!". January 16, 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
- "Leading Digital Publisher Axel Springer Acquires Business Insider". September 29, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2015.
- "Welcome To Business Insider". Business Insider. April 23, 2013. Archived from the original on April 23, 2013. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
- "Business Insider Turns A$2,127 Profit On $4.8 Million in Revenue". TechCrunch. March 7, 2011.
- Hagey, Keach (July 29, 2012). "Henry Blodget's Second Act". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
- Spangler, Todd (September 29, 2015). "Germany's Axel Springer Buys Business Insider in $343 Million Deal". Variety. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
- RRE Ventures
- Matthew Luckett
- "Business Insider". Forge Global, Inc. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
- "IGNITION 2012". Business Insider.
- "BI Intelligence". Business Insider.
- "Digital 100: The World's Most Valuable Private Tech Companies". Business Insider. November 2012.
- "Business Insider Broadens Ambitions With New Tech Site". The Wall Street Journal. July 27, 2015.
- Mullin, Benjamin (December 14, 2017). "Business Insider Inc. Drops 'Business' From Its Name as Company Broadens Coverage, Distribution". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
- Alpert, Lukas I. "Business Insider Launches Markets Data Site With Help From Axel Springer". WSJ. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
- Roddy Salazar (January 23, 2017). "Welcome Business Insider Sub-Saharan Africa!". Yahoo News UK. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
- "Ringier Launches Business Insider Sub Saharan Africa". Africa Newsroom. January 20, 2017. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
- Chris O'Shea (January 20, 2017). "Business Insider Launches Sub-Saharan Site". AdWeek. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
- McIntyre, Douglas A.; Allen, Ashley C. (January 22, 2009). "Best 25 Financial Blogs". TIME. New York. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
- "Our Favorite Blogs 2009". PC Magazine. New York. November 23, 2009. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
- "Blog-Business: Official Honoree". Webby Awards.
- "Business Insider | The Webby Awards". Retrieved February 9, 2017.
- Carr, David (January 26, 2014). "Ezra Klein Is Joining Vox Media as Web Journalism Asserts Itself". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 16, 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
- Awards, Digiday (February 7, 2017). "Business Insider's social-first Insider is up for Best New Vertical for this year's Digiday Publishing Awards – Digiday". Digiday. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
- Hagey, Keach (July 29, 2012). "Henry Blodget's Second Act". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
- Ha, Anthony (May 22, 2012). "Business Insider's Henry Blodget Defends Linkbait, Slideshows, And Aggregation". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
- Bershidsky, Leonid (September 29, 2015). "Can Business Insider Make Money?". Bloomberg News. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
- Auletta, Ken (April 8, 2013). "Business Outsider". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
- "Waving the white flag in Scarlett Johansson flap". San Francisco Chronicle. July 13, 2018. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
- Singal, Jesse. "Business Insider Retracted a Bad Piece — and Set a Terrible Precedent". Daily Intelligencer. Retrieved July 13, 2018.