Brian Morrissey writes in his The Rebooting website about why Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng is departing.
Morrissey writes, “One Business Insider executive at the Media Product Forum was scrambling to make sense of the news their CEO was leaving. They were busy backchanneling to know more about the new interim CEO, digital media veteran Christian Baesler. The good part of being in this industry for a while is these kinds of things don’t faze you. Layoffs, abrupt leadership changes, Google kneecapping your distribution – it’s just a Wednesday.
“BI’s struggles have long been apparent. It was built for a completely different era. And to be fair, it succeeded in that era, particularly in the most important aspect: Knowing when to sell. CEO Barbara Peng’s departure after 2.5 years at the helm featured fits and starts of a new direction. The publication would focus on ‘digital go-getters,’ subscriptions and of course emphasize events. Then it would need to shore up its pageview business. Working in these businesses is exhausting.
“BI’s challenges are shared by many publishers built in the 2000s and 2010s. Their original models are now obsolete – and have been for years. This is a known known that belongs in the no-shit-Sherlock file. The more interesting and urgent task at hand is building the new business while continuing to operate the old one. It’s less building the airplane while flying it of Silicon Valley cliche, more constructing a new platform as the current one you’re standing on is engulfed in flames.”
Read more here.
