Media News

CEO Peng’s note on returning to Business Insider name

CEO Barbara Peng sent out the following on Tuesday:

Today I am excited to share some news: we’re officially returning to the name Business Insider.

It’s also an honor and a privilege to be named CEO, and I am grateful for the opportunity to lead such an incredible and talented team.

There is so much I love about Business Insider. We’re fast in our embrace of new ideas. We’re optimistic and find opportunity in the most challenging moments. We’ve never been tied to convention and always find new ways to make things better. Serving our readers is a pleasure and a privilege every day.

I am grateful to Henry Blodget. What we love about this place — our spirit, our readers, our commitment to building a beloved and sustainable journalism company — all began with Henry 16 years ago. Henry created and cultivated who we are today, and it’s his leadership and vision that enabled us to survive and thrive as many other media companies fell away.

Our journey began in 2007 in the midst of the financial crisis when we burst onto the scene as Silicon Alley Insider. Two years later, we adopted the name Business Insider.

We were trailblazers, breaking the real story of Facebook’s founding, demystifying the financial crisis for our readers, and profiling the visionaries who built some of today’s largest tech companies. We covered the startups and people that our audience cared about, even if we occasionally ruffled some feathers. We showed the world that business journalism could be visual and fun.

Over time we grew into a global news organization, with journalists in New York, London, and beyond. We moved headquarters from a loading dock into a light-filled office in the Financial District. We built a video team. We embraced social distribution and platforms. We turned small businesses into overnight sensations. We coined terms that entered the zeitgeist. Our stories have changed government policies, launched investigations, and re-opened closed cases. We tried lots of things – some ideas worked, others didn’t. We won our first Pulitzer prize.

The world continues to change dramatically. But 16 years into our journey, the core of who we are hasn’t.

That’s why we’re returning to Business Insider. We’ve always been for people who are optimistic, driven, and forward-looking. Our audience subscribes to a mentality where ambition doesn’t come at the expense of a sense of humor. We help them discover the ideas and the people who are changing business, tech, and beyond. (We’ve always believed that businesses don’t do things, people do.)

A future as Business Insider reaffirms our center of gravity around business, tech, and innovation. We are embracing our roots and focusing on what we’ve done best — storytelling that’s fascinating, unexpected, and always helpful.

We will continue to become a daily routine for more people. We’ll bring the best of who we are to those who love us most. We’ll go even deeper in areas our readers love – areas we know best – and we’ll continue to pull back the curtain on the players that matter most.

And we’ll tackle it how we – and how you, our readers – always tackle challenges: by getting a little bit better every day.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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