Business Insider CEO: We’re seeing an increase in traffic

Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng sent out the following to the staff on Friday:

I’m thrilled to share that we’re off to a strong start this year.

Even as Google’s AI Overviews have reduced traffic across publishers, Business Insider saw year-over-year growth in visits (traffic) and return visits (engagement), in both January and February — a significant achievement in today’s landscape.

And there’s a clear reason for this: our newsroom has moved away from aggregation and more than 80% of what we publish is now exclusives, scoops, and original reporting. And others are noticing: we just won our first Polk Award, and major outlets are increasingly citing Business Insider stories that can only be found here, with pickups up +47% year-over-year.

Beyond that, we continue to be a global leader in generative engine optimization (GEO) — our journalism appears in AI answers so frequently that we rank among the most-cited sources in large language models in the world.

The throughlines are simple: original, must-read journalism wins. (When we break news, explain what matters, and reflect how people actually experience the world, audiences seek us out.)

And when we work together across the company — editorial, product, and business — magic happens! Each team has been doing a phenomenal job working together to serve the right experience to the right person at the right time.

This week, readers can listen to Business Insider stories on our site with a single tap. And this is just the beginning — over the next few weeks, we have more products and features launching to further deepen connection and loyalty.