Business Insider editor in chief Carlson touts subscription model

William Turvill of Press Gazette interviewed Business Insider editor in chief Nicholas Carlson, who argued that the subscription model for news organizations can survive and thrive during the pandemic.

Turvill writes, “Insider launched its subscription model, Business Insider Prime, in 2017, offering exclusive content to paying readers. Insider websites also offer a large amount of free content and claim an overall audience of 375m readers.

“In addition, the company owns Business Insider Intelligence and eMarketer, which are specialised research services.

“In January, Poynter reported that Insider had around 200,000 paid subscribers, with an aim of increasing this number to 1m in five years.

“‘Subscriptions are great because it really aligns enterprise reporting – which is what reporters love to do and it’s good for the world – with the reader and the business,’ says Carlson.

“‘It’s all nice and together and it’s really exciting, actually. We have seen that investigative feature reporting, great beat reporting on businesses, on things that people want to know and need to know, will drive a subscription business.'”

Read more here.