What happened to Insider’s DC bureau?

Corbin Bolies of The Daily Beast reports about Insider’s grandiose plans, which resulted in uneven strategy and large departures, for its Washington bureau in the past few years.

Bolies writes, “Almost three years later, nearly all of the original Washington, D.C. bureau team is gone. Samuelsohn was fired just days before the 2022 election and a steady stream of staffers have exited over the past year. Insider’s plan to reshape its political coverage turned out to be ‘one of the more wild rides’ in political media, a former staffer declared.

“The Daily Beast spoke to 10 current and former members of Insider’s political team, all of whom described conflicting editorial directions, poor management, and constantly shifting goals—all of which contributed to general dysfunction and, ultimately, the collapse of a once-promising bureau. The sources were granted anonymity to speak candidly about their experience.

“‘We made a big push into DC and politics over the past few years and hired many talented journalists. We are grateful to this team and proud of their coverage,’ an Insider spokesperson wrote when reached for comment. ‘Their great work got a lot of attention from many of our most prestigious competitors for whom political coverage is core to what their audience expects. For us, that’s business and tech.'”

Read more here.