Business Insider president Hansen leaving company

Julie Hansen

Business Insider president Julie Hansen is leaving the company at the end of the year to join a start-up, reports Lukas Alpert of The Wall Street Journal.

Alpert writes, “Ms. Hansen’s departure comes a little over a year after German media conglomerate Axel Springer SE acquired most of the company for a $343 million in a deal that valued the entire company at about $390 million.

“Since then, Axel Springer has worked to integrate Business Insider into its operations. In October, the companies launched MarketsInsider.com, a globally-focused markets data and news operation powered by Finanzen.net, Axel Springer’s German finance portal.

“Ms. Hansen joined Business Insider in 2008 as the company’s fifth employee and helped founders Henry Blodget and Kevin Ryan build the company into one of the most well-trafficked business news outfits on the web. Business Insider attracted 53.2 million unique visitors in October, up 29% from the same month a year earlier, according to comScore Inc.

“Ms. Hansen held an undisclosed equity stake in the company. She is departing to lead an undisclosed start-up company that is not in the media space.”

Read more here.

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.